A Year Ago

Today was Zoe's two week "birthday"!  Thinking of milestones made me think of what happened on this day last year.

Last April 20th, I arrived home tired at the end of a typically long day.  Jim was gone on his week-long trip to Arkansas and I would be by myself.  I was probably more tired and frustrated than normal, having received a nasty letter the evening before from the IRS, rejecting my initial submission of evidence for their audit of our 2008 tax return.  (Growing up in WV, we would say that when you were really mad, you were spitting mad.  Believe me, I was!)

Thinking it would be nice to get something positive in the mailbox, I trudged up the street to get the mail.   In the pile of credit card offers, FIOS mailings (thanks Verizon!), catalogues, and requests for charitable contributions, was a large envelope from the State Corporation Commission.  I quickly dropped everything else on the kitchen table and ripped open that envelope - it was the certificate showing that ZCG LLC (Zoe's legal company name) was official!  Talk about forgetting everything else that was bothering me!  I was on Cloud 9!  I could really start moving forward now!

I'm still amazed by how far everything has come in the past year.  While I certainly hoped to have the store open by now when first getting started last year, I could not have ever imagined the journey that I would take to get there, all of the great people I would meet, all of the things I would learn, and all of the new experiences.

At this time last year, I hadn't even started figuring out what lines I wanted to carry and where to go to market.  Now, I'm making appointments for my next market visit in NY in May with a variety of existing and new vendors.  I'm making new friends with the people I meet every day.  I have meetings in my own timing and of my own choosing (and on topics that don't bore me to death!)  And I get to make women smile when they find something they love at Zoe!

I had a great chat yesterday with my friend Michelle who lives in NC.  She had asked me to pick a dress for her to wear for the author photograph for her upcoming book.  Knowing her and the beautiful location in which she would be photographed, I sent her a dress (one from the Velvet line).  She loved it and called me to buy it yesterday.  I can't wait to see her picture - she will be beautiful in it!

If all goes as planned, the new HVAC system should be installed tomorrow!  Today was a little on the warm side so I'm definitely ready to have this done!