So, the next day after the night of awesome that was my
drunken tourism time, we did some stuff, and then we left so we could get back
early enough for the wifey to make it to work.
There was some drama or whatever, but I have bad hearing, so most of what
is said by people never gets the chance to bug me.
Anyways, the ride home from Gatlinburg to Chicago (where I would catch the train to go
home to DeKalb) was scheduled to take about 10 hours, if I remember
correctly. Eddie was a professional
driver, and I am a professional insomniac, so we made the trip go pretty
fast. Much like with my wife, I usually
just let Eddie drive me around, because they both drive me nuts from the
passenger seat. D-Bags!
This long car ride was very important, because although we
had briefly discussed the possibility of opening a store in Chicago
before I came to Tennessee ,
this was the first time we REALLY talked shop.
Actually, let’s loop around the beginning of this whole mess,
and why on Earth we were opening a store at all. Eddie had come into some money, and decided
to open the store down in Tennessee
to help his kin. Eddie and I were
somewhere between gaming / drinking buddies and kindred souls at the time, so
he was telling me about said gaming store way back in November of 2012, or
so. I was pretty jealous, because I
always wanted to work in a game store (who doesn’t?), and I straight up told
him I was green with envy. To the point
of uncontrollable rage, even. Okay, not
that bad, but still. D-Bag.
Long story short: the store gets opened up down there (duh),
and is doing pretty good for itself. We
didn’t really talk much for a while, mainly because we were both busy doing our
own things. That’s the way things
go. Also, I lost his number, so I pretty
much lost contact with him, though I did have his email address, now that I
think about it.
Anyways, I hear from him and do the usual, “Who dis?” thing
(though Swype is making it much harder to be lazy in a text), and then I ask
him about the store. He was happy to
talk about it, and told me that it was doing well. I think I asked him about it a few more
times, and eventually he was just filling me in when something cool happens
(which is pretty much how we operate now), and eventually he said something
like, “I know a dude who wants to open a game store. I want you to manage it. Something something,” I don’t know, I was
pretty much stuck on the thing about the managing thing.
I told him that I would love the job, and would make it work
in anyway possible. The talk was not
terribly serious as in the feasibility, or it actually happening anytime soon,
but the idea was planted.
SO!
Fast forwarding back to the drive home from Tennessee … this is when
the talk of stores went from a “that would be cool” sort of thing, to a “let’s
do this!” sort of thing. We talked
business details for a while, and of course told life stories. Eddie tells some of the best stories ever,
but unfortunately, out of respect for his privacy, I will not be able to tell
them, (until he dies… hmm, that sounds awfully incriminating.)
By the end of the trip, which we drove straight for about 8
hours if I remember correctly, we were pretty sure that it was a go. We were both of the opinion that we cannot
possibly fail, which seems like a great business plan to me. Lofty goals, but we are both guys who get
stuff done, and we are going to be as positive as possible, even when we think
we are totally screwed. That will come
up a lot, by the way.
I was going to keep the pending venture hush hush, just in case
it never panned out, but of course Amy tells people, and they tell people, and
suddenly people are talking to me. About
things, even! Jeese Louise.
I began hoarding my cards, and of course, started looking
for places to open said store. I showed
some stuff to Ed, he scoffed, showed me one he liked, and bam. Store!
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