Charlotte's Web

Originally posted on an old blog on Saturday, January 06, 2007

Sharon & I have been together for nearly 2 years now. Each time we have traveled somewhere it has been to visit family or friends. While it's always nice to see these people, you have to escape for some relaxation time alone at some point. With this in mind I told Sharon I wanted to plan a vacation for us, but I didn't want her to stress out on any of the details. I wanted to surprise her with a destination vacation. She reluctantly agreed - I think she feared I might take her to a hockey training camp in Minnesota or something.

I didn't want to even tell her we were going somewhere but I knew that I'd have to get her to block off about a week of time from working. Since she pretty much schedules her own work at her job, asking her boss to force her to take time off at the last minute wasn't really much of an option; though it would have been a great tactic!

I told Sharon that she was not allowed to pack her own travel bag and that we'd be leaving at 4:30am on the 8th. With such an early departure time I insisted that she be completely done with all work related responsibilities as of Dec. 7th @ 5pm. The suspense completely ate her up at first. I slowly leaked out small inaccurate details to her so that she wouldn't become wise to the situation. At one point I acted completely exhausted of having to keep it all to myself & I *accidentally* gave up the fact that we were driving within a days distance. Oh how that sent her mind reeling!

On December 7th, 2006 (a Thursday night) Sharon came home from work. She had strict instructions that work was not allowed to contact her after 5pm. This actually was due to the fact that we'd be on a plane over night flying to New York City. When she came home I sent her over to our friends, Julie & Grant. I had already packed our ice skates into a suit case and shoved them into hiding. I did let her pack her suitcase but told her to pack shorts - yet another item to throw her off the trail. I finalized all the packing while she was at Julie & Grant's home. I brought her home and sat her down. I put ear plugs in her ears, over-the-ear type headphones connected to an ipod playing music on her, as well as a blind fold/sleeping mask. Obviously this takes a lot of trust on Sharon's part, which is yet another reason I know she's forever.

I took everything else down to the car while she sat quietly listening to music. Grant slid into the back seat of the car - he took us to the San Jose airport and drove the car home after we got there (I will never forget how much you guys did for us!). On the way to the airport Sharon began singing out loud. I'm surprised Grant kept silent so well after that - it was quite amusing!

We got as far as checking in & checking luggage & even up to the X-Ray security area before we had to remove the blind fold. Sharon was very excited that I planned NYC for us. She didn't think we'd be heading back east that far after coming from Buffalo just a week prior.

We arrived in NYC at 6:30am the next morning. It wasn't a bad flight at all. If I can, I will always splurge for Jet Blue as an airline to travel with. Having my own personal screen with select live DirecTV channels was pretty nice! We did a last minute change of hotels so we could be closer to the heart of the city center. The first day was all about recovering from the travel & hotel changes (that was pretty much Friday).

On Saturday we walked around Times Square/Rockefeller Center area. We passed the Radio City Music Hall and Sharon couldn't believe I had never heard of the "Rockettes." We ran into a lady & her daughter in a Starbucks who were from Kentucky. They began telling us how they went to see the Rockettes & how fun it was. Hmmm...

One other thing I told Sharon was that she needed to bring a nice dress because we were going out to a pretty fancy dinner & a "special event." Now in Sharon's' mind she was thinking that if I were going to propose it'd be on the night she needed to get all dressed up. In reality the special event was that we were going to see the Christmas Spectacular w/ the Rockettes on that night (Saturday). We went to dinner & in the restaurant there were nearly 30+ people who rushed in the front door all at once and snuck around to surprise a recently engaged couple they were friends with. It was cute to see Sharon glow watching this moment for these people. When Sharon found out we were going to see the Rockettes show she was certainly surprised and excited - however afterwards I was nearly convinced she didn't like it that much. Later I found out that it was because she thought of all nights I might propose it'd be this night.

Good thing I waited! We did many more things over the next couple of days - we walked ALL of Central Park,

Wall Street, took the Staten Island Ferry, skated at Wollman Ice Rink in Central Park,

went to F.A.O. Schwartz... On our final night, Monday the 11th, I told her I wanted to skate at Rockefeller Center:

Rockefeller Center Ice rink is pretty small and they only let so many people on at a time because of this. The line to get in is pretty long and so is the wait. While waiting in line Sharon & I met some really nice people from South Wales (U.K.). They inquired as to how long we had been dating. When we told the mother of the group she said to me, "Shouldn't you be asking the big question pretty soon?" "Mom, don't be such a hen! He's probably got the ring in his pocket & is going to ask her tonight and you may have just ruined it!" her daughter joked. My heart came up in my throat, I really didn't know what to say or how to act in this situation. Luckily they soon let more people in to pay. They cut the line of people off being let in right behind us & the people from Wales didn't follow. After passing through a glass door and coming to a cash register, I took a skate guard off my ice skates and stuffed it in the back of my pants. I told Sharon I must have dropped it just before we walked in the door - she held our spot while I went back to, umm... look for it. I told the nice people we had met that I did indeed have the ring in my pocket and asked if they would take our picture in front of the fountain/Christmas tree after we were all on the ice.

I returned to Sharon inside. We paid & put our skates on. Soon after getting on the ice it became obvious that getting some space in front of the big statue of Prometheus under the Christmas tree wasn't going to be easy. Everyone wanted to take their picture there. After skating around nearly 15 times or so waiting for all the beginners' feet to tire, I asked our new friends if they'd take our picture now. There were less people stopping for pictures than before; though it was still pretty crowded. I asked a few people around us if they could give us just a minute of space and told them I'd help them direct skating traffic away for their picture in return. I gave our new friends our camera, purposely leaving the flash module down. They took this picture:

After the first picture was taken I asked Sharon if she could show them how to turn the flash on so we could have one with light. Right at this moment when she wasn't looking I dug the box out of my inner coat pocket & hid it behind my back. She returned quickly for another photo. Just as she looked at the camera I turned, went down on one knee, and pulled the box out from behind my back. Right when Sharon turned and looked down at me is when the next photo was taken:

Sharon seemed to lose her balance and kind of fell forward into me - I think her legs went like Jell-O:

After quite a long pause and a very impressive, "Yes! Yes! Yes!" I asked if she'd like to put the ring on!

When I looked up nearly everyone on the ice had stopped skating and formed a semi-circle around us, & everyone on the 2nd level were looking down upon us. People were cheering, clapping, smiling! What a moment!