letter fourteen

10.4.2010

Dear Bartender,

this past weekend, we attended the new bedford oktoberfest. there was a banner. that banner announced that the bitter end will be opening in october 2010. yes, our bar. opening! although the banner was tucked in a corner, it was there. a soft announcement of sorts. we sipped from craft brews. you hummed sweet nothings in my ear about plans for our future. now that this bar opening is real, with a proposed closing date in a couple of weeks, we're softening up to the idea of the next steps we'll be taking. together.

you repeat often these days that you're doing "all of it" for me. for us. each weekend is spent motoring around poi for home goods to rehab our someday home. with each power wash that removes years of neglect from the surface of this house, you are readying our home. with each coat of stain you spray on with an unruly sprayer from high atop a ladder, we are "this much" closer to making that place our home.

with all of these little big things in motion at the same time, i think we're both starting to calm. warm to the concept of it all happening at once.

grown up time. it is.

you and i fare better with plans in place. now that the reward of the worry and paperwork we've endured since may is coming to a close so the thick work may begin, i feel the realness of it all is maker us happier and contented together. we're slipping from the cusp onto dry ground, bare and ready for our building of the next phase.

and, damn it, i think we're actually ready for all of this, even if we're not quite sure what it's going to be like, taking it on together is bringing out the best in us.

cheers, baby, we're days away now. soon you'll have what you've been working so hard towards for a decade. i look forward to the smile you'll have when working your own business. i know just how that look will be. and soon, i'll no longer have to imagine it.