A full circle

Today was the day it happened.  The power was cut to the historic Bartlett Building this morning at 11:05am.  Duke (energy company) came in around 11 and told me they were going under ground and that the east side of the building would be first and then our side.  Within minutes, it was all over.  For weeks now it has been an everyday worry.  We moved all the product from my store 2 weeks and 3 days ago.  I, along with some help, have been running the right amount of bread, meats, chips, all that jazz everyday from the Clifton store.  It has been stressful!  When the lights went out, I can't lie, it was a sense of relief from the "in between."  So that is it for my little store with no dining room, my insanely busy lunches, my flirting with all the cute business men,  the end to meeting all the Red's players, and the most tragic, the end to blatently hitting on every Bengal player and coach that bought a sandwich.  I guess my plan to ask for tickets to a game will have to happen a different way........this day sucks, but I am lucky.  I lost my store but not my job.

Now it is the eve of my first day working at the store on Calhoun Street.  Well, first day isn't really accurate.  I spent more time there that I can remember in college.  The amount of hours and shifts I ran paid for a large part of my college education.  I met some of the best people I have ever known while working there and, at that time, they were my family.  Whenever I visit there, I remember the fun that I had working.  I was Val's second hand person, she fully trusted me to do things the same way she would, and I took a lot of pride in my professional relationship with her and personally, she is one of the most loyal and dedicated friends.  If it wasn't for Val, I wouldn't have been hired part-time at the Dayton store while I was finishing college, I wouldn't have been asked to move up to General Manager of that location and then asked to transfer to Downtown Cincinnati when Dayton was sold.  My last 7 years of employment all started at the same store I will be opening tomorrow.  It is bittersweet.  I have never had the intention of working there again.  So much has changed there since I last had a key to the door.  There is one person I knew from the "good ole days" who still works there, all the other who were my family, have mostly moved away from Cincinnati.  Mandy is in LA, Claire is in Savannah, Val is in Nashville and Kristen is in Cleveland (according to facebook). 

Tomorrow will be interesting but not just tomorrow....damn.  I just remembered again that this isn't temporary.  My store at 24 E 4th street will not exist again.  All my regular customers are now just strangers.  Boooo....I am done talking about it.  I just got sad again.