Yeah, I know there is a level of "Where in the World did that come from?!" Although it seems out of the blue and super random, but I promise you it was not...
The road to this adventure begins about a week before Thanksgiving. I had been unhappy with my purse for some time, and on that Monday I decided I was going to Kohl's and find something that would make me happier. On my way home from work, I call Jay to see if he's home and if he wants to come with. He agrees, I swing by the house and off we are go. As usual, my first question was "How was work today?" At that moment my worst fear for the past 5 years came true - Jay tells me that his boss is closing the store at the end of the year. At that moment I burst into tears and begin the mind spinning realization that in less than a month we will be a one income household and have no idea how we are going to make it..I was angry, scared, and quite honestly sick to my stomach. I wanted to just turn around the car and go home, already in a mindframe of pinching pennies when Jay forces me to go to Kohls.
Always the rational and level headed one, he makes me promise that I can cry and wallow for the remainder of the night, but then I must suck it up and at least play fine until the end of the year. Riiiggghhtt...
Then, in the purse section at Kohl's he tells me that the owner of the coffee shop he frequents is moving and mentioned to him about buying the shop. He had to repeat it, because I didn't realize he was serious. He stopped me and looked at me and said, "I think I want to try to buy it." True to form, I reply " Are you nuts?! How in the world would we be able to do that!" At this point in the conversation, I stop at look at him, and I realize that he is DEAD.SERIOUS. He wants to do this.
Now, if you don't know Jay, you may not realize how persistent and stubborn he can be when he puts his mind to something. Knowing this, I knew he would do everything he could to see if it could happen.
Throughout dinner that night, he continues to tell me how he wants to try, really try. He believed, and I agreed, that this may be one of those "once in a lifetime, game changing, moments." He felt if he didn't try, he would always wonder "what if." I knew that if we could somehow figure out funding, that it would happen and would be successful. Jay is such a smart and personable person, he practically ran the store he was at for the past 6 years, and is one of the most hardworking people I know. By the time we went to bed, I was getting just as excited and hopeful as he was.
I can't say it was an easy process, or by any means a quick one. With holidays in between and other scheduling mishaps, from start to finish it was a 3 month journey. At times we just weren't sure if it was going to happen. We began to start many of our sentences with "If it happens..." When it started, I was so excited and told a few close friends and Jay was not thrilled with me. He told me it was bad juju and put me on a gag order. :)
For 3 months, our first questions of the afternoon were changed to "Any coffee news today?" and I often held my breath waiting to hear the answer. I watched Jay transform - he became a man of lists, clipboards, phone calls - his mind was constantly going. It was a good thing, because his boss closed the store 3 weeks early (another blow that hurt, especially right before Christmas - a Christmas we were hosting mind you!) Everything happens for a reason, I believe, and that store closing gave him more time to work on the business. We would go days without progress, and then sometimes it was a hurry up and wait situation. It was stressful but hopeful.
We finally got funding and a closing date was set for the next week, and at that point I still wasn't sure it was real. I became the person that didn't want to talk about it until the ink dried on the paper...
Fast forward to February 29, 2012....the ink dried...we officially became the proud owners of Bay Islands Coffee Company!! I cried and then just sat still. It was a day I will NEVER forget! We had great plans of going out to dinner to celebrate and had Champagne bought and ready to go, but to be honest it didn't play out that way that night. :) Jay immediately went to work the day of closing getting the freezers moved and the stock ready for his first official day. As he closed up that night we stood in the Hut just looking around and kept asking "Is this really ours?!"
The night of closing - all because he wanted to "try" So proud of him!
So excited!And so..there it is..We bought a Coffee Shop! Now our adventure begins!!
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