from Blue Ash

Just because.

In these twilight days of 600 Vine, I've been picking up as many hours as I can at Walk of Joy. After this coming Friday, I won't have any days off until early May (unless the cafe shuts down earlier than that, which is a distinct possibility). Although it's exhausting, I don't mind working so many hours, for three reasons: (a) the extra money will pad my "Wisconsin Fund" quite well, (2) I have a job where I make peoples' lives better, and (3) work is a joy. I find it funny that back when I worked at I.G.A. "in the days of my youth", I would find any and every reason to call off work. Now such a thing is unimaginable to me, and I cover peoples' shifts and work extra hard simply because it's the right thing to do. I don't know if this is a bad thing or not, but I'm proud of my work ethic. I remember an old friend pointing out that the hand of God was seen in Joseph's life as he kept getting more and more work piled on his shoulders; my friend quipped, "God often blesses men and shows them His favor by giving them more work to do." God has indeed blessed me, and He's shown me favor, though I so much don't deserve it. (It's called grace)

I've finished two nonfiction books on The French & Indian War:

The War that Made America and (an unoriginal title) The French & Indian War.

Now I'm starting Allan Eckert's Wilderness Empire.

Guess what it's about? You guessed it! The French & Indian War.

Speculating "What If?" when it comes to history can be fun. After the Treaty of Paris 1763, France retained New Orleans and Louisiana. Since Spain came to France's aid in the war's last moments and ended up losing all sorts of territories and gaining nothing, France threw Spain a bone and gave them Louisiana and New Orleans. About forty years later, Napoleon Bonaparte set his teeth against Spain and convinced them to give Louisiana and New Orleans back. Napoleon, in turn, sold the territory dirt cheap to the burgeoning United States since the Americans were ancy along the Mississippi and wanted to move west. The speculation comes here: during the formulation of the treaty, Great Britain had to give something up to France in order to get back Minorca, the Mediterranean island stronghold France had taken early in the war, an island which largely determined who ruled the Mediterranean Sea. Great Britain desperately wanted the island back, and they knew they'd have to give up either their conquests in Canada or the sugar-rich West Indies. Thus it became a matter of "Do we give up land? Or do we give up trade?" Great Britain decided to return West Indian conquests in order to get Minorca back in their hands. Now: following Great Britain's victorious war, which truly turned them into an empire, the nation found itself HUGELY in debt because of William Pitt's extravagant spending. Great Britain had to start paying on the debt, and so they jacked up taxes not just in England but also in their American colonies (and they did this absent assumed legitimacy from colonial legislatures). Much of the unrest leading to the American Revolution fermented over these taxes; because France had been expunged from the continent, the "check" of New France no longer remained in the picture (when New France had been in Canada, the colonists knew they needed redcoats to protect them from any imperialistic leanings of Catholic France to the north). Thus both colonial unrest over taxes and the absence of the French to the north propelled the colonists to rebellion (this is simplifying it more than a bit, but still...). But, what if Great Britain had chosen to keep their West Indian conquests and hand back Canada? The lucrative sugar trade from the Caribbean could've helped pay back the war debts, perhaps keeping the colonists from being so heavily taxed; and France's presence in Canada would've served as a bulwark against revolution. It may very well be that Great Britain's choice to keep Canada and return to France the West Indian conquests set itself up for revolution. This isn't just my own speculation: even the royal governor of Massachusetts made such a deduction long before war in the colonies broke out.

I'm sure every one of my readers skimmed that paragraph.

That's totally okay: it was more a rambling than anything else.

Mandy may have read it, but just to be nice.

Speaking of the Wisconsinite, I got to see her twice yesterday! IN PERSON! It really is noteworthy. Every time I see her face-to-face, I'm still to this day stricken by her beauty, as if I somehow forgot how beautiful she is. It feels like we've been dating a lot longer than we've technically been together, and I think it's because I've known her for years, and my affection, care, and love is as if we've been together half a decade. Even when we weren't together, even talking about being together, I was more open and honest with her than anyone else, confiding my feelings and fears, opening my life to her, sharing myself with her. Those are all aspects of what "dating" is about, and though we didn't have the title, or the intention of dating, nevertheless we grew close in that way. I think that's why it's so easy for me to talk about marrying her and spending my life with her when we've only been officially together for two months. Marriage isn't something I take lightly, and my exes know me as the one who wouldn't say "I love you", much less talk marriage and children of all things. But with the Wisconsinite, it's an entirely different story.

We're going to be hanging out Thursday.

And Friday.

And Saturday.

And even a little bit Sunday!

I can't wait till we get to hang out every day.

I'm at Blue Ash and my replacement just arrived.

So I'm calling this posts quits.

#ttyl