Wow, SOOOO much has happened since my last post!

First, the cupcake shop dream is progressing, but very slowly, which I guess for my sanity is good. My old boss and I met with the manager of the shop last week, and she told us as much as she could about how things ran, but didn't have much info on things like the age of the equipment, the lease, or the financials. She was, however, a very bright girl with a lot of great ideas for the shop that the owner never did anything about. And unfortunately, she's already take a manager job at a new shop opening in May, though she did seem willing to train me in as much as she knew. The rest of the staff of four all have new jobs also, though she said none of them were wonderful anyway, so that's probably for the best. Since then, I emailed the owner asking her for the financial info, and she emailed back yesterday asking for more personal information about me before she would send them. Not quite sure why she cares at this point...if I have the money, that's all she really should be concerned with.

And actually, having the money is probably the biggest surprise of this post -- I called my dad Thursday after the meeting with the manager and told him about it all and, unbelievably, he offered to give me the entire amount right away! I hadn't even asked him for a penny yet, and certainly was not going to ask him for more than half the amount, if that! I was shocked! But he was really excited about the prospect of me doing this and has since sent me a really nice email about how he thinks that, even if this particular opportunity doesn't work out, that I should definitely keep looking for another one, which again, shocked me. But wow was it nice to have someone else besides Brad being supportive!

Anyway, as of today, I'm waiting to hear from Brad about the draft responses I wrote to the owner before I send them, to make sure I'm not saying anything that could hurt me. Once I send them, hopefully the owner will get me everything I need for Brad's partner to take a look at them and tell me whether this is worth doing or not, and if it is, then I'll move on getting an SBA loan for everything else. I'm hoping that if it does look like a go, I can find a way to force the closing to be AFTER my beach trip in July, because I think by then I'll really need a vacation.

The other big news: my first meeting with the East Cobb group of Ladies Who Launch. Absolutely amazing. Eight women who had never met me, instantly interested in me and my project, and instantly supportive. Joining this group may be the best thing I've ever done.

So it's been a very positive last few days. And while I've been incredibly busy, it's felt wonderful. Productive. And that's certainly a feeling I've had in forever! And while of course I have some anxiety over the fact that there is a lot to doing all this that I'm literally flying by the seat of my pants on, I feel like I've now got sources of support I can go to for help, and that is absolutely huge for me. And even if this particular plan falls through, I now have several sources for new ideas for new plans! And it all happened in one week! How fucking cool is that??