Which is apparently really hard to locate on the stateline of a highway on Saturday afternoon during Labor Day weekend. Doh. Meredith and I chilled out and read while Hatti worked the phones.
On the way home we visited Lisa in Nolita who was working on opening a new clothing store called Court. All of us were in the tiny back office that had an electric fan on the floor pointed upwards - which everyone know instantly forces girls to pretend they are in a Whitesnake video. Awesome!
We got off the A train at Canal Street and walked across town to Vegetarian Dim Sum House. This place is incredible. Even if you're not a vegetarian, I encourage you to check it out. (C'mon, it's not like you even know what's usually in them anyway, right?)
....obligatory photos of everyone jumping at the beach! Yay! Take One: Gurj, Scott and Amanda have amazing form in this pic. Sarah, however, failed to achieve lift off.
Hahaha. The subway was underground for a long time so when it finally came back up to the surface, the ladies abandoned their reading materials to text on their Sidekicks! Ha! (I was going to say that they were all sending tweets but this was two years ago and I don't think any of them were using Twitter yet! Things are changing faster and faster!)
On Saturday Meredith and I went to Gruppo and HOUSED one of their amazing pizzas. I don't usually like thin-crust pizza, but for whatever reason, I love theirs. Easily my favorite pizza place in the East Village!
Later that evening, a whole bunch of us got on the Metro North train to visit Ellen's new apartment just north of Manhattan. Meredith looking serene at the train station.
Around 7pm I noticed that Meredith had gone done disappeared! After peeking my head into a couple of rooms I finally found her napping upstairs (with her tiny dino arm up in the air).
Then a couple songs later, Meredith, KT and Siege joined the party and we all nerded out together. Just cuz you're getting married doesn't mean you gotta grow up or anything! Thanks to everyone for keeping the surprise a secret and for coming out to help me surprise Meredith! It meant so much to have so many people we love be there to share that huge moment in our lives!
Before she could answer, I got down on knee and popped the big one! She was so surprised that at first she didn't say anything. She just kept looking around totally surprised trying to process what was happening.
As the surprise wore off, she just started laughing and laughing. Her first words back to me after my proposal were inspired by Bret Michaels and VH1's awesomely terrible Rock of Love. She asked, "Will you stay in this house and continue to rock my world?" Hahaha.
While Meredith sat on the couch, all of the roof guests quietly sneaked into the apartment but stayed by the door out of Meredith's sight. With everyone in place, I took a deep breath and tried to pretend that I was just casually joining her on the couch. As soon as I sat down next to her, the noisy party instantly went completely silent and Meredith noticed that everyone at the entire party was looking at the two of us and aiming cameras at us. Before she could ask what was happening, I asked "Remember four years ago when you asked me out on this couch?"
After successfully getting settled in to the party without Meredith suspecting anything, Catrinel initiated the next stage of the plan and got Meredith to sit down on the very same couch that she'd been sitting on four years ago when we decided to go on our first date! (Cat was like "It's really hot - come sit here on the couch with me and I can fan us!" Smooooooth.)
Meredith out of nowhere: CANDY BRA NOM NOM NOM! Hahaha. I love Gurj's expression in this photo so much. It's totally due to the fact that Meredith is FULL ON cupping her entire right boob and it makes me LOL every time I look at it.
...Meredith's over-sized engagement ring. I had to custom order it in her size (because she has teeny tiny fingers) but the custom ring didn't arrive in time so I had to propose with a ring that only fit on Meredith's thumb! Hahaha.
On Monday, we took it easy around the house. Meredith was busy doing some arts and crafts while I did my best to pretend that I didn't have a ring in my pocket and that I wasn't nervous about proposing at a party in front of all of our friends in just a few hours.
Here's the whole thing captured on video courtesy of Siege. (My favorite part is after all 15 seconds of kissing and the room yelling of the word "woo," it gets quiet for a second and Sarah goes "WAIT, DID SHE SAY YES?")
After cleaning up the place, we headed to Penn Station to catch a train down to the Jersey Shore to visit my parents and my brother for Memorial Day! Here's me taking a picture of Meredith and documenting a new game we invented called "This is how thin I can make my lips." (Meredith is the undefeated winner of this game, btw. This photo is merely the start. You should see just how thin she can make her lips now. They look like paper and it's creepy! Hahah).
I got home in the evening and this one had no idea that I was out secretly shopping for rings all day! Tee hee hee! Here's Meredith with her friend's dog that we were dog sitting for! Her name is Tina!
After the commencement let out, we knew that every single restaurant near MSG would be mobbed, so we decided to head up to Times Square and go to the motherfucking OLIVE GARDEN to AVOID THE CROWD. Oh, the irony.
