The Wisconsinite and I spent most of the weekend together, and I cherished every moment of it! Thursday evening we got dinner and drinks at Marion's Piazza with Mom, Dad, and Ams. Mandy got to know my family a little bit more, and somehow I found an inroad into talking about the French attack on Pickawillany (modern-day Piqua) and how a French half-breed cut out Old Britain's still-beating heart and took a bite out of it as French and Indian soldiers rushed into the encampment, killing and scalping and burning. After Marion's, Mom introduced Mandy to my life through a scrapbook detailing my birth all the way up through my graduation, and Dad got out one of his shoebox memoirs filled with stuff I've written or made for him, and we laughed as we went through it. I proudly pointed to how after my second year of life, Ams was in nearly every picture in my scrapbook. I'm proud and thankful to have such an awesome little sister. Mom and Dad both really like her; indeed, Mom loves her! "I can't wait for you to be my daughter-in-law!" she exclaimed.
The next day, I gave Mandy a tour of my old stomping grounds: Springboro High School, I.G.A., 40 Willow Drive, and 430 Wellington Way. We went on a walk through the woods at North Park, and I related all kinds of stories: sledding into the creek, running through the woods impersonating velociraptors with Chris and Lee, that spot on the hill where I would go and smoke cigars and read my Bible with the woods alive and beautiful all around me. I introduced her to Dorothy Lane Market, and we created our own salads and went back to the house and sat on the back patio and ate our lunch and played fetch with Sky. Evening found us back in New Richmond, where we got sushi in Mount Lookout with Cameron & Cheryl, and we walked around Hyde Park and got candies at a candy shoppe and ice cream from Graeter's, and we ate our ice cream on a patio and in the shadow of a tree laced with white lights. Back at Cameron & Cheryl's, Mandy was introduced to The Walking Dead. Not exactly Downton Abbey.
Saturday before my shift in midnight we got coffee from Starbucks, walked around Ault Park and took lots of ridiculous photos, and we perused a game shop and had lunch at Dilly's Cafe in Mariemont. Sunday morning we parted ways after going to church at State Avenue Church of Christ, where I learned that when we go to church together and I bring coffee, I need to drink however much I want before she gets ahold of it. Bidding farewell was never fun (as always), and though it'll be over a month before I see her again (the longest we'll be apart since officially dating), I know it will go by quickly, and these weeks will be filled with working nonstop to bulk up my Wisconsin fund and my engagement ring fund. She's the woman I'm going to marry, and I've never found myself so eager to work.
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