A Super Bowl that never was and girls need dresses...

Today, while traveling home from Indianapolis, IN, I decided to stop at an outlet mall in Edinburgh, IN that has a lot of great stores to see what was going on.  It was this outlet mall that my wife and I stopped at a little over 13 months ago when we were on our way to the SUPER BOWL to see what they had for our family!!  It was February 3rd, one month after our dossier made it to Ethiopia and it was on this trip that we received our first update since joining the ranks of the "waiting list"...we were number 27!! Kelley and I talked a lot about what life would be like with a little girl in our home.

It is no coincidence that a little over 13 months later, I am in Indianapolis for a meeting and I pass this outlet mall again.  For those of you who don't know the story, let me give you a "fairly" short version:  on February 3rd, we were in the midst of selling my former company (O'Charley's Inc.).  I had known that this was coming since October 24th, 2011 (74 days after being named CFO of the the company) but I obviously could tell no one.  In January 2012, we were deep into the due diligence process with the potential buyer and our beverage manager came into my office and said "I have two tickets to the Super Bowl from Budweiser.  Do you want them?"  I had never been to the Super Bowl so I said SURE!!!  But, I needed to confirm the dates of the game and the timeframe for closing the deal so I told him to come back in a week or so and make sure I could go.  He checked back around January 25th and said he needed an answer.  My CEO told me that we would likely close the deal around February 8th or 9th, and I should GO TO THE SUPER BOWL!!  Well, I was pumped.  Our tickets were on the 40 yard line in the Budweiser box!!  Kelley and I made the drive up on Friday, February 3rd and had the discussion noted above.  We got to the "Bud Light Hotel" to our rooms, which were comped, and found lots of free stuff in the room.  That evening we walked around Super Bowl village and just tried to take it all in.  We were texting and giving FB updates all over the place.  We got to bed around 11pm, tuckered out from a long day.

Around 3am, I got up to go to the restroom and I checked my phone...it was going crazy with emails, text messages and voicemails from lawyers, my CEO, investment bankers, etc...I sent a note to my CEO asking what was going on.  He called me at around 9am and said the deal had changed and that the buyers did not want to give the stock another day of trading and so we were closing on Sunday...SUPER BOWL SUNDAY!!!!!!!!!!!  Well, we had to come home on Saturday, February 4th.  Since we weren't going to the Super Bowl, I thought I would try and make it up to my sweet bride and so we stopped in Edinburgh, IN at the outlet mall and bought stuff for our kids...she seemed okay with that tradeoff...

We got home around 3pm; I got into the office around 4pm and stayed until 10pm; I was back in the office at 6am on Sunday morning...we exchanged signature pages around 3pm and I left the office around 4pm on Sunday...I came home and it hit me; everyone in my life thinks I am at the Super Bowl and I couldn't tell anyone otherwise.  Kelley and I went to the bonus room in our home and settle in to watch the game; me with my laptop as I review versions of the press release announcing the deal until around 10pm.  During the early part of the game, my oldest son Jordan sent me a text asking "hey Dad, send me a picture from the Super Bowl" and I got up from the couch, snapped a picture of the TV and sent it to him.  He quickly responded "what the crap is this?" and I told him him the truth that me and mom weren't at the game but I couldn't talk about it until Monday morning and that I would call him at around 8am to discuss it.

A lot has happened since then:  we finalized the deal in May of last year; I stayed on until January of this year; I started a consulting engagement in February of this year with a company that had a Board meeting today in Indianapolis, which gets me to the point of the dress.  Did you know that girls love dresses and pearls...the photo below is a dress, pearls and hair bow I purchased for her on the way home...I didn't get to see a Super Bowl but man did I get to buy a great dress for my little girl...I hope she likes it...it was definitely worth it...