our anniversary

I’m engaged....details

Brian G------- told me a few days ago that I will never find anyone better than Cristi and I can't agree more! I'm very lucky to have found such an amazing woman. I realized about six weeks ago that there was no reason to wait any longer so I started looking at rings and decided to pop the question this weekend!
Here are details if you care to hear how the proposal went. It was very fun for both of us:
I found the ring that I wanted to get Cristi about a month ago.  My next step was to figure out how I was going to propose. I wanted it to be a surprise and wanted it to be a good story. SO, I was sitting at home a few weeks ago thinking about football season starting up on Labor Day weekend and suddenly realized that Cristi was going to be in New York with her friends that weekend and it would be a complete surprise to her if I flew up there and surprised her and her friends and popped the question. I had a huge dilemma though. I DID NOT want to interrupt girls’ weekend or pull her away from her friends. I know when the guys and I go to Lake Hartwell every fall....we would be very upset if one of the girlfriends or wives pulled up and interrupted our weekend. I love all the wives, but I don't want to see them on guys’ weekend.

My cousin and his wife live in the Upper West Side so I decided that I would go ahead and fly to New York to surprise Cristi, and then I would vanish after I asked her so that I did not interrupt girls’ weekend. Cristi thought that I was just staying in Atlanta to play golf and watch college football at Taco Mac all day...a very likely story. I decided not to tell any of her friends and only a hand full of mine. I knew that we would talk a few times a day, and she would tell me where they were or where they were going so I thought it would be easy to find her and surprise her. This past weekend was Labor Day so here is how it all went down...
Friday:
3:45PM- Dropped Cristi off at Marta for her flight to NY.
3:50PM- Met my Mom at Taco Mac to give her Sweetie (Cristi's dog that she thought I was keeping for the weekend).
10:00PM- Cristi arrives to New York and we say our good nights.

Saturday:
6:00AM- I leave to go to the airport
8:00AM- My flight leaves heading to NY (I tell Cristi the night before that I'm playing golf early this morning with Brian and some people so I will just talk to her after I'm done around noon. I didn't want her calling Saturday morning and wondering why I wasn't answering the phone or calling back.)
10:00AM- I land at LaGuardia and catch a cab to my cousin’s apartment on the Upper West Side at Columbus and 83rd street.
10:40AM- I arrive at my cousin’s and call Cristi. I tell her that we decided to just play nine holes because we were so excited about watching Game Day and football. She tells me that her and her friends are going to eat brunch somewhere in Soho (I'm thinking...great...how am I ever going to find her if "somewhere" is all the detail that I'm going to get all day).
11:30AM- I head to this Sports Bar called "Blondies" (No, not a strip club) because they have the best wings I've ever eaten and I wanted to watch the NOON football games. My cousin and his wife meet me and hour or so later. We order food and I start thinking about how I'm going to find Cristi. Luckily, my cousin knows NYC very well and can help track her down quickly if we know the area and store (or restaurant) that she is at.
2:55PM- Cristi calls and tells me that her and the girls are shopping and that they are about to head to Filene's Basement. She also tells me that her friends were disappointed that she showed up without a ring (She said it half jokingly so she didn't come across as trying to pressure me...little did she know). After we hang up, I tell my cousin and his wife "Let's pay the tab and head to Filene's basement". It turned out that there are 5 or so different ones in the city (Oh crap!) but they think it's probably the one in Union Square considering where they were and that is the biggest one.
2:56PM- I throw the money down for the tab and we RUN outside to catch a cab.
2:57PM- We catch a cab and head to Filene's at Union Square.
3:07PM- We arrive at Filene's Basement. We do a walk through and don't see them so we head out front and decide to wait by the entrance door.
3:36PM- I send a text message to Cristi asking her if she bought me anything at Filene's Basement :)
3:55PM- Cristi sends me a message saying that they have not gone yet but asks me why I deserve anything.
3:57PM- I respond back "Because I'm the best boyfriend ever"
4:40PM- Cristi calls me and tells me that she bought me a massage bar at "LUSH". I casually ask her what they are doing now and she tells me that they are walking into Filene's basement (My cousin and I have been waiting outside over an hour at this point). I don't see her walking in so I ask Cristi what part of town that is in. Thinking nothing of it, she tells me that it's on 6th Avenue.
4:41PM- My cousin finds Filene's Basement 6th Avenue on his blackberry and luckily it was only about 4 blocks away so we start walking (very fast).
4:48PM- We arrive at Filene's Basement and I walk in. I SEE HER FRIENDS (they don't see me). I walk around the corner and I SEE CRISTI. I duck out and walk around to the front of the store and go outside with my cousin (very nervous and excited) to wait on Cristi and her friends to walk outside (I realize that this is where it's going to happen). The way the store is laid out....everyone has to walk up the escalator once they exit the store to go outside. I decided to wait at the top of the escalator and had my cousin follow her around in the store and let me know when she was coming.
5:20PM- My cousin comes up the escalator and tells me that they are all coming. I get the box out of my pocket. I see Cristi get off the escalator and I'm standing at the side and she does not see me at first so I called out her name. She turns around and was in SHOCK to see me. Her friends realize what is happening and start grabbing their cameras. I drop to one knee and tell Cristi some sweet things and asked her to marry me. She cried and said YES...picture of the moment coming soon (We have to get from friends). Here is a picture of the ring...