When I say that my butt cheeks have been clinched together for the past month, it is NOT an exaggeration. My butt is NERVOUS!

Men try to never let other men and especially women know when we are afraid. But, I cannot even lie… this makes me nervous, scared and any other adjectives that describe fear!

This is Scary! I have been fortunate enough to have opened and operated a few businesses in my day. But usually, in the past, they were operational when I bought them. When I bought the bar in Mexico, It was already open. When I bought the McKinney Avenue Tavern, it was already open. And not only were they open, I was familiar with the locations, the people, and I was even familiar the way things worked. This time, it is WAY different. And not only that, the business that was there before me didn’t make it.

And, I have no idea if people will show up. We have hostesses that have never hostessed at my restaurant before. The cooks have never cooked at my place before. Should we have taken a few days to practice? Sure, but that is not an option. It’s march Madness and we are a sports restaurant. It’s GO TIME! We tried to open last week (to have a few days of practice) but that didn’t work out. And that meant another week of spending money with no revenue.

This time, I have put my personal “everything” on the line. My car payment is a month past due. All of my credit cards are full. And my bank accounts are pretty much empty. The American Dream??? I guess this is as close as it gets to putting it all on the line. The good news is that tomorrow is opening day. It will be a “soft” opening but we will be open just the same. What am I afraid of? Failure? Being Broke? Customers having a bad experience? All of that and more. I guess it’s just a fear of the unknown. And that scares the pants off of me!