so i'm sure this is 100x longer than you'd really prefer to read, but i just had to write it all down - haha - so please skim/read..... my engagement (2.29.08) story.... yes, i got engaged on that leap year day, 2/29....how funny is that... :) so ken got down on one knee and said..... "baby..will you LEAP into this marriage with me?" hahahaha...sorry, couldn't resist. he did tell me that was his Plan B speech - oh brother. so it all started when i - innocently - said, "you know... all i care about is getting surprised. i don't care how romantically or unromantically you propose, i just want to be surprised." well. i think that TOTALLY stressed him out. he started planning for ONE MONTH ahead of time with my close friends to try to surprise me - all unbeknownst to me of course. there were so many things that could have derailed the surprise, it's rather funny.... of course, there is a happy ending b/c i was incredibly suprised... (1) it was supposed to be a surprise that he would be visiting me in ny on 2/29. but then my mom spilled the beans. -she goes to me, "um... i can't quite remember if i was supposed to tell you this but....ken told me he's coming 2/29 weekend." -me: "what??! why? he didn't tell me!" (*thought* - dude, is he going to propose?) -mom: "oh... ooops...." -me: "MOM!!!!" so there it was, right from the getgo, my mom unintentionally threw ken under the bus. poor ken. so now i'm in total angst - what do i do?? do i tell him?? or do i just "pretend" to be surprised. i seek the advice of 2 ppl -- -my sister: "you HAVE to tell him. you can't....you can't base your marriage on a lie....." -me: oh brother, how dramatic. (love you dug!) -my good friend lyd tells me that i should just keep it to myself, as that was my original intention. i just didn't want him to have to go through the hassle of changing his plans, and at this point, i realized that being surprised was really not that important to me anymore. meanwhile, lyd tells everyone else - MAYDAY! MAYDAY! SHE SUSPECTS! so everyone frantically scurries around trying to formulate a "new" plan...hence plan B... (2) ken goes to plan "B" so then ken tells me that he's coming to ny 2/29 weekend, but on that saturday, 3/1 to sunday, 3/2, and not on friday, 2/29. this is normal b/c he usually comes sat. to sun. only. he says he's coming to pick up the ring, and that makes sense to me, b/c i'm sure most ppl would rather pick up a ring personally if they had an option than have it mailed. so now here i am thinking, "*whew* my mom didn't ruin any surprise at all." then i told my mom, who pretty much collapsed with relief, b/c she was in agony all week thinking she ruined a surprise...heehee. then i was itching about the ring and asked ken if he was leaving with the ring too that weekend and he said YES, so i thought, fine, sigh. but i totally believed he was coming on SATURAY (which he didn't) and that he would leave with the ring and not propose then. (3) ken plots with my friends --- The Dinner-Show Scheme so the plan is that my college friends were supposed to seem like they all wanted to see this show - Jump - which plays at union square, and to have the idea to have dinner around union square, and then to innocently pick Olives, which is the restaurant that ken and i had our first date. the plan is going excellently at first. lydia brings up the idea to see Jump in early feb., I am actually the one to e-mail everyone else about how we should follow up and try to see the show. i am also the one to suggest that we all have dinner before the show. yes, i'm quite pleased with myself and how i inadvertently helped ken's plan along so well. again, this was perfect for ken b/c it seemed like it was even my idea in some ways. then i get all weird about the dates. everyone sent e-mails saying they could only see the show on friday, 2/29. except i somehow miss the gist of these e-mails, and i obliquely write, "hey, i'm not free until march"... then i write, "oh you guys go see the show without me"....then i FINALLY say ok, let's do 2/29. as 2/29 approaches, i'm super excited about seeing my college friends, and i was excited about olives too. i asked ken if he remembered what olives was, and he said he had no idea. SIGH, i thought to myself, how like a guy not to remember. it would have been the perfect type of place to propose... i'm so serious, that thought ran through my head...haha... DAY OF ENGAGEMENT: 2-29-08: the plan is Ken will show up at my "dinner with college friends" and propose. remember i'm thinking he'll be in new york the next day, saturday, not friday. at all. FRIDAY -- Ken arrives in NY early morning. I get up early morning to go to a court appearance. Ken goes to a Starbucks to grab a latte. I go to the very same Starbucks to grab my latte on my way to work. I think I missed Ken by literally an hour. man, how awkward would that have been if i had bumped into him that morning... i work the whole day. Ken picks up the ring. Ken nervously rides the subway with the ring in his pocket as he goes to a job interview. He chillaxes the rest of the day. He then goes to Olives to get ready for me, he's there around 5:30 p.m., i'm supposed to show up at 6:30 p.m. 6:30 p.m. - i'm eyeing the time, but i'm totally swamped at work, getting really stressed, and feeling like i'm either going to miss the dinner and just go to the show, or i will just have to tell this partner i'm not getting this work done until after the weekend. i decide to do the latter option but i'm still 30 minutes late b/c i leave work around 7pm... 7pm -- ken is nervous i'll skip dinner. meanwhile, i head out of the office and i call my friend lyd b/c i want to order ahead of time. me: "yo, what's on the menu? let me order ahead of time." lyd is nowhere near olives, she's at the library. she frantically tries to pull the menu from the screen: "uh.. what are you in the mood for? why don't you just order when you get here?" me: "no no i want to order now... " lyd's computer suddenly crashes: "uh..the waiter just left, let me call you back." i'm getting all impatient now and lyd's frantically trying to get the menu but decides she'll make up dishes. me: "what meat dishes do they have?" lyd: "they have.... steak...also salmon..." me: "no salmon, just meat!...oh never mind, i'm practically at the subway station." i'm on the subway and getting excited about seeing friends but still stressed from work. ken calls me on the way to olives; meanwhile, i think he's in california still, and i just chat with him about how excited i am about seeing my friends, etc., and then i hang up b/c i arrive. OLIVES - i'm finally there! i try to breeze past the host, who asks me what party i'm with, i'm trying to just ignore him b/c i want to find my friends b/c i'm so excited. a waitress sees me - she is IN on the whole plan - and she says for me to follow her, she knows which party i'm with. she takes me to a table that's circular and somewhat secluded, it's got a little curtain around it. she says that some of my friends are here but that they are in the bathroom and that they told her to have the rest of the ppl coming in to get seated first. this is not really surprising to me b/c women go to the bathroom together all the time anyway. i did think though - fleetingly - guess they all had to go. so i'm sitting there, eyes glued to my BlackBerry, as i'm still wrapping up some last minute e-mails from work, i'm totally not looking up at all b/c i'm so intent on finishing e-mails. then suddenly...the curtains part... ken appears....he then immediately gets down on one knee, pops out this box with a diamond ring inside, looks at me, and asks Will you marry me?....and it's like time stopped. i'm so amazed, shocked, surprised, SHOCKED, from the combination of seeing ken when he wasn't supposed to be in ny to..and of course..to getting proposed to... that i must have continued to be silent in shock and must not have answered his question because then i heard the question again, "uhm... so will you...?" and THEN i'm say, "YES, YES, of course!" and *boom*, ring on the finger. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ it was so incredibly romantic, i could hardly concentrate, I'M ENGAGED!!!, i kept thinking incredulously. i lost my appetite from the shock/happiness for approximately 11 minutes when i couldn't figure out what to eat/didn't care to eat, but then like a good wellesley girl, i snapped out of it, and ate away...but still..i kept saying "we're engaged!" out loud while ken just kept eating b/c poor ken was starving ...heehee. then ken arranged for some friends to meet us at a bar, and it was so much fun! it was wonderful to share the moment with friends. then a few of us went out to eat - AGAIN heehee - at bon chon chicken. yuuuum... uh.. i think i had a crazy amount of cocktails that night...heh. i celebrated it rachel-style, i guess - heehee. and that, my dear friends, is my engagement story. hopefully you survived/skimmed. thanks for reading and thanks for sharing this moment! | 
