The grand absence
I have had an interesting year in the time since I last updated this blog.
Let’s start out with the move.
We have lived on the bench for a full decade. We lived in the upstairs unit shortly after Hailie and I first started dating, and when the owners alerted us that the downstairs unit, with fenced yard and attached garage, became available, we got comfortable in that becoming the chapter of our lives. I truly loved that apartment, and I miss having the ability to walk five minutes to my shop and popping in at lunch to say hi to Hailie in the afternoon, but we were presented an opportunity and had to jump on it. The long and the short of it is that our move from Boise into Meridian was an opportunity to transition from “renter” into “homeowner.”
I cannot stress this following sentence enough. That day was incredibly hard for me.
Having a moving truck load all of my belongings in less than two hours felt like watching someone tear an oak tree out by the roots. I had a really hard time with the transition into the new space because it was a more gradual process than I typically have patience for. Now that we’ve been in the new space for the second half of 2024, we have gotten into a daily routine and I can really appreciate what this space has given us the ability to do..
And now, we live in Meridian. It’s certainly more suburbia than the heart of Boise, but we were able to get into a space that allows Hailie and I to both have our own separate offices. We have a grand room space that connects dining, cooking and living room areas, and there’s enough of a backyard to support Tesla being a tiny elder who has little old lady bladder in the middle of the night. It was a real change between the space that we had grown into, and the weirdest thing was the fact that we have room to settle in. After 10 years of amassing things to occupy the space of a tiny apartment, we lost the ability to host or entertain as the entire layout was built to support the two of us and dogs. In contrast, now I have a gym in our garage, I have an office that has dedicated bookshelves for my graphic novels, and Hailie has the same for her books and her work space. I also just got a new computer and monitor, so my entire workspace is built from the ground up for this space.
Getting the house set up has taken a large priority of our focus, and that’s before we get into any of the holidays. We typically don’t have the ability to pull ourselves away at the holidays, but this year we made sure to plan ahead,
Thursday (Thanksgiving Day + Uncle’s birthday) - Leave Meridian at 8am to arrive at Idaho Falls around 1:30pm for dinner at my aunt and uncle's house. Full house of extended relatives I haven’t seen in years.
Friday - Leave aunt and uncle’s house by 7:30 for Black Friday deals at Barnes & Noble before making our way to my grandma and grandpa’s house for leftover thanksgiving lunch. Leave around 2:30pm so we can arrive in Star Valley, Wyoming before sunset. Dinner with Hailie’s parents.
Saturday (Father-In-Law’s Birthday) - Spent day with in-laws and getting burgers for lunch.
Sunday - Left at 8:00 from Star Valley, Wyoming to arrive in Twin Falls, Idaho to see my last set of grandparents for an afternoon conversation before getting back on the road to get back home before sunset.
With Thanksgiving being as hectic as it was, we called Christmas an opportunity to just enjoy the day off together because we rarely get free days off outside of our weekends. We cooked and watched movies all day. Overnight breakfast casserole, roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, and I created the greatest sweet potato casserole that I’ve ever tasted to classics like Die Hard, Christmas Vacation, Elf, Muppet Christmas Carol, and…Jaws? Yeah, that’s a Hailie thing.
This brings me to the final thing that has prevented me from updating this page, which, ironically, is also the reason I am getting back into the swing of things and updating these blog posts a little more regularly. I started The Barber Story as an online blog, with the intent of providing transparency while entering into an industry I knew nothing about. The goal was to learn multiple sides of the industry, and then apply the lessons into my own shop. I cut in a commission barbershop for a year, and then I cut in a lease salon for another year. I traveled through the northwest visiting barbershops, and I even traveled to Boulder, Colorado to guest cut out of a shop on pearl street. In 2017 I opened a brick and mortar barbershop. The Barber Story is located in one of the most rapidly developing neighborhoods, The Bench, in one of America’s most rapidly developing cities, Boise, ID. The award winning barbershop is one of the highest rated barbershops on yelp and google reviews in the Treasure Valley area, and all of our barbers are consistently booked out weeks at a time.
I believe many people fear what they do not know, and cannot understand. It is a reason why many are unable to break out of unhealthy cycles that remain familiar to them. It’s a reason why good people don’t try new things. Growth is challenging, and learning can oftentimes be a painful experience. I do not fear going into spaces I lack understanding in. If anything, the more I explore spaces I have no business being a part of, I find that there are oftentimes more parts of myself that I get to learn about. Having said that, in 2025, I will be starting my second business. Endie Gallery, will be a fine art gallery, operating independently within the space of The Barber Story. These will be two separate entities that will coexist in the same space. The goal of Endie Gallery is to connect artists directly with locals in their community, and present a unique opportunity for purveyors of fine arts to discover Boise’s exploding art community.
Now you may be asking, why an art gallery in a barbershop? There are a handful of opportunities that I feel the art community misses out on when displayed in Art Galleries. For openings, most artists will see a lot of their friends and peers show up to events, but support is largely physical and not monetary. It takes a lot to go right for the right person to walk into an art gallery to buy your art. Many artists will consign their artwork at coffeeshops, but coffee customers are more rushed or preoccupied with work to focus on art. The modern coffeeshop no longer supports a former era where people could be captivated by the art for sale on the walls (oh, to be in a world without cell phones). Our barbershop is uniquely positioned to provide a clientele that is a captivated audience, values attention to detail, values conversation pieces, and are all fairly successful in their careers.
I’m still working on getting all of my calendars finalized, the website built, social media launched, and a handful of other projects, but to support the opening of the gallery, The Barber Story has gone through a complete overhaul to create a more open floor plan, put in new lighting and mirrors, and we have repainted to differentiate the gallery space from the barbershop space. Once everything launches (later this spring) I will be excited to start sharing updates from the exhibits.
This has been my year. 2024 was stressful, but it set us up for what 2025 is going to bring. 2025 is going to be the excitement I need to take me into this next chapter.
-Chris
