A few months ago, I was walking downtown to meet Doug for lunch. Knowing for the last year that he had been hating his job at his former place of employment and that he had a particularly difficult morning (thus meeting for lunch), I had a thought (a repeating thought that we've both had for years). So simple. So obvious.
*Doug needs to open his own store.*
He needed to be in charge of his own destiny and have the majority of control of his own life. When we meet on the street the first thing he said to me was... "Mike and I want to open our own store." Yeah. Things like that happen to us all the time and we don't ever ignore them. When our brains are aligned and we're clicking on the same thought processes it makes life so much easier.
So here we are, in partnership and we're opening a store with our friends Mike and Adrienne Applegate. Downtown on the mall. The place where my Grandma walked with my Dad and Uncle Pat (Don't you love those shoes!! awesome!). Where I had my first ride on public transit with my Grandma and we went to Gilmore's to shop for shoes. Then we would walk along the pedestrian mall and go to Kilwin's for a hot fudge sundae and play on the concrete animals in the middle of the mall.
At the time it was a calming thought and seemed the only thing that could be done to alleviate the situation that was disrupting our lives so much. The essence of the idea is still calming, the reality of it is both exciting and terrifying at the same time.
We are days away from opening the doors and changing our lives forever...and I can't wait one more minute! It's insanely good. Ace's Cycle is about to born.