I have a confession to make...
I've been lying to my girlfriend for 6 months now. There, I said it.
Back in July, Jenn and I went looking at engagement rings, "just in case". There had been this ring that she had a picture of for over 10 years now. She clipped it out of a Fortunoff ad and it was her dream engagement ring, so we went off to Fortunoff to see if this ring still existed. The ring was a white gold setting with 6 diamonds channel set on the sides of the main stone. Lo and behold they had the setting still and a beautiful diamond that would fit perfectly. As per my usual M.O. I sent her for a walk while the sales person and I discussed pricing. This ring was a little more than I had budgeted but when Jenn saw it, I knew it had to be hers. I told the saleswoman, Sandy, that I was going to call Jenn back and that she should try to "convince" me to buy the ring infront of Jenn and that I would argue and leave, but not to fear because I would be back the following saturday with a deposit.
So it began. Six months of sneaking back to fortunoff alone to make payments. If Jenn had happened to ask where I was or where I was going, my usual reply became "Barnes and Noble honey, I'll be back soon." An answer I knew wouldn't arrouse suspicions, it never did. I had planned to propose on our trip to Rome in November so put every extra dollar I could to getting this ring in time. It was going to be hard, I hadnt planned to spend so much, but I had to do it, her face was priceless when she spotted it and she was so sad when we left the store and I told her that it was way too much and I wouldnt possibly be able to get it for her.
Fast forward to the night before halloween.
I was away in Las Vegas for work when I got a text message from Jenn saying she wasn't feeling so well. She explained that she wanted to go to the ER and that immediately worried me because she hates having to be in the hospital, so for her to go willingly signaled something was amiss. She went to call her mother and I didnt hear back from her for a while. I finally got through and her roommates explained that her pacemaker went off and that the ambulance was coming. In a fit of panic, I booked the first flight back home to be with her (I had never missed a hospital visit of hers in six years and I wasn't starting now.) I wont bore you with medical details, but the result was us having to cancel our trip to Rome. She was devestated and felt terribly about it. We had looked forward to the trip since janurary, but it was not worth risking her health. Now I had this ring sitting at home and no ideas for how/when to propose. We tried booking a trip to Boston and that fell through also. It was now thursday 11/16 and we were supposed to go to Rome in 4 days. I had a brainstorm.
I made a "date" with her for this wed (11/22) to "make up for rome" and kept pumping her up about it "you excited for wed?! dress nice! its gonna be exciting!". All the while, I'm booking a limo and making plans for this past saturday as a surprise. Wed was to throw her off...she had always said she wanted her proposal to be a complete surprise. To get her dressed and ready to go out on saturday with out tipping my hand, I told her we were going to my boss's anniversary party in Philly and to dress nice and pack an overnight bag. On Saturday, I picked her up in the limo, told her I had lied (notice a theme...) about my boss's anniversary and that I had wanted to surprise her with a nice date, but kept on pressing the wed thing. (The limo is a 2nd much more aggrevating story). So we got to NYC, and started the night with a horse in carriage ride around central park (her dream). 
We then proceeded to our favorite little italian place, Montes, on MacDougal Street and had a nice dinner. When we got back up to the street (it was downstairs) we talked for a little while we waited for the car and right there on the street infront of lots of amazed onlookers (and annoyed boyfriends) I dropped to my knee and asked her to marry me. Everyone kept asking for her answer and took pics. After crying for a bit she fianlly said yes, it was magical. 
We went back into the restaurant where all the people inside were extremely happy for us.Since we didnt have any pictures of our own of the actual proposal we took some pictures once we got back inside.
Next, we went to the top of the Empire State Building, followed by a night in a very nice corner room suite at the sheraton manhattan (a few blocks up from time sq).
Lastly, we went for a walk and another horse and carriage ride. 
She had always told me she wanted her proposal to be: 1) a surprise (check), 2) public (check), 3) involve a horse and carriage(check), 4) be in NYC (double check), and 5) involve fireworks (dont think I didnt try...). Four out of Five aint bad...
I love you Jenn. 143-637.
