I made the realization last night that my life has been incredible for one year straight. This revelation has hit me in a powerful way and I just want to keep it going. How do I know it’s been a year? All I did was look back to appointments and notes in my 2013 Day Planner:
Jan. 8, 2013 – Move into Chickadee Lane
Jan. 9, 2013 – Sub BBA
Jan. 10, 2013 – Connie Blatchford 10 a.m.
These three days of early 2013 marked a shift in my life that pointed my boat in a better direction than where I was headed in 2012, which I would sum up as a year of some painful lessons. On January 8, 2013, I started renting a little chalet house that I’ve come to call the nest. This was the first time I’d lived alone in years and the experience has been one of the single most empowering things I’ve ever done. From hanging my own pictures wherever I wanted, to shoveling my own snow, to nights of going to bed at 8 p.m. just because I wanted to, having my own place where I don’t have to compromise the way I want to live has been amazing. January 9, 2013 was my first day as a substitute teacher at BBA. I have my friend Lauren to thank for giving me the idea, “You’ll be great at it. You’ll love it” she said, “…and the kids will love you.” She was right. It was during these three days that I also met Connie for the first time at the suggestion of our mutual friend Dricka, a golf pal of mine. Connie had just moved to town and Dricka told me, “You’ll like her.” Dricka is rarely wrong about much, but especially putts and people.
Jan. 23, 2013 –Met with Bill Drunsic. Patty came up with the name “Petticoat Junction”
Jan. 25, 2013 – Created Facebook page. Asked Holly Mirenda to create graphic and business cards. Met with Barbara Morrow. Met with Pauline Moore
Jan. 28, 2013 – Met with Amy (and then right after it in different ink) – pay yourself in your business plan
Jan. 29,2013 – Name? JOY?
I had been thinking about opening a lingerie shop for about a month and it was really starting to bubble at this point. I had a close circle of friends that I had shared the idea with, and I decided to start reaching out to “business people” in the community to see if they’d have coffee with me. The first person I called was Bill Drunsic. I wanted to talk to him because he was a “business man” in Manchester and I thought could give me a real “business” sense of whether this idea I had might actually be something worth pursuing. It didn’t hurt that he was my friend Amy Chamberlain stepfather and that Amy was my first friend in Manchester. When I first moved here in 1990, it was Amy who was the first person to reach out and be my friend. So much of the life and love I have for Vermont started with that first friendship with Amy…this meeting with Bill is just another part of that story.
I met Bill at Spiral Press (where else?) and blurted out my idea of opening a bra shop. His initial reaction was skeptical and I remember him saying something to the effect of, “Do you really think there is a need?” It would have been easy right then and there to let doubt win and take his question as a negative, but instead I asked him to look around the crowded and loud café, full of small groups conversing over coffee – a lot of them women. “Look at all of these women,” I said, “do you know what they all have in common? They all wear bras.”
I sensed the opportunity side of “Business Bill “kicking in and I asked him to just think about it and if I could maybe follow up with him in a few days after I thought a little more too. He gave me a couple of names of people to talk to around town and I asked him to ask his wife Linda (Amy’s mother) what she thought about my idea when he got home. Linda is one of the sunniest most optimistic people I’ve ever met, but there was something else I knew about Linda; and that was that she wasn’t going to let me – Amy’s friend – make a huge mistake. If she thought this bra shop idea wasn’t an idea that had real possibility, she was going to let me know.
I called Bill a few days later and he immediately said, “You might have something here.” I took this as a green light from Linda and never looked back.
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I wrote all of that above early this morning, February 2, 2014 and was a little disappointed that I didn’t finish it before heading out to church. I wanted to wrap up those days from the day planner and talk about how all of it led me to right here, right now feeling like I’ve had this incredible year, but it was getting towards 9:15 so I packed up the laptop and left for church. Finishing up today’s blog post about a Year of JOY would have to wait.
Now that I’ve gone to church and back, I understand why the story wasn’t finished, and it’s just another example of letting life happen. I walked into church this morning and sat by two women that I really didn’t know a year ago. One of them is Courtney and she is a huge part of the shop and any success it may have. She’s at the shop almost as much as I am and is cool beyond belief. As a matter of fact, she’s manning the shop alone right now so that I can finish this. She made a quip the other day that she doesn’t see anyone else as much as she sees me. God bless you, Courtney! Thank you for always being ready to rock.
Mary Beth was at church too. I’ve loved getting to know her better over the past year. As I scanned across her pew, I saw her husband and three of her children… and… – and I swear I can’t make this stuff up – …I noticed her youngest daughter was reading a book entitled, “The Adventures of Captain Underpants.” I took it as a sign.
I also sat next to a couple of friends I’ve known for many years. One of them was Tamara. She has never looked more beautiful or happier than she did this morning. I think she’s had an incredible year too. The other one was Amy. She sat right beside me in my pew and at one point during the service, reached out for my hand. Pretty incredible…my oldest friend in Vermont still reaching out to me with love after all of these years on a day where I had already sat down and written a story I owe so much to her.
There was another friend there that didn’t sit near the rest of us, but came up after the service and told a story that started with the words, “Manifest joy. Let’s manifest joy. Let’s do it.” She went on to tell me how she manifested a claw foot bathtub. Again…I can’t make this stuff up.
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To fill in some blanks:
Connie has become the shop’s administrative hero. She’s the one who sits and figures out the computer, fixes my mistakes, makes me deal with stuff I hate doing. She’s good at a lot of things I’m not. If I had to give anyone one piece of business advice it would be to hire people that do things you can’t, won’t or don’t like to do. Thank God for Connie. Turns out that Connie went to high school with another friend of mine, Kassie. If Dricka hadn’t turned me onto her, maybe Kassie would have. I’m convinced our paths were meant to cross.
The idea for the name “Petticoat Junction” for the shop was pretty fun to bat around with Patty. I watched a couple of the old episodes with Donna Reed and really thought about it. I’m smiling thinking about ideas we had to tie in with the “function junction” and petticoats on a fence, but alas, that name wasn’t meant to be. Talk about some bras that did the job – whoa! – go ahead and watch a couple of episodes of Petticoat Junction! In the “what to name the shop” discussions, it was also Patty who would always come back to “there has to be something with your name, Joy… there has to be something with your name…”
Holly created the JOY logo. You know, the one with the circles and triangle? I’ll tell you that story someday – it’s not a very long one and, yes, we new it was “it” the second we saw it. Boom.
Barbara and Pauline probably need no introduction to people in Manchester. They gave me their time and they gave me their perspective…and they took me seriously, very seriously. It means a lot.
I should have listened to Amy’s advice a year ago about paying myself. I woke up yesterday to an email that said that my personal checking account balance was $16.72. Thank God Berkshire Bank is open on Saturday mornings so I could write myself a check!
The idea to name the shop just “JOY” came from a bulletin board in Tricia Heaton’s classroom at Burr and Burton. I saw it a year ago almost to this very day on a day when I was substitute teaching. The messages on the board were things like: “Find Your JOY” “Create Your JOY” “Live Your JOY” “Be Your JOY” I woke up the next morning and said to myself, “Let’s just call it JOY…”
Manifest it. Keep it going.
Joyously grateful,
Joy
