We had been planning my birthday for a few weeks. It was to take place at the Jimmy Rooftop located in the James hotel in Soho, New York City. I was having twenty of my closest friends and family members. I knew I wanted to go to Central Park during the day since according to the weather it was going to be 80 degrees. I had been wanting to go to the Loeb Boathouse for lunch and then proceed to go row boating on the lake soon after! I also wanted to go gaze at my favorite -the beautiful cherry blossom trees. Unknown that my darling boyfriend Matthew had been planning the perfect proposal for me. He knew how badly I had been wanting to go and partake in these events, and tried so hard to make it happen. The day was April 29, 2017. Unfortunately for him, I had decided to act super difficult that afternoon not allowing for any of his plans to run smoothly. It was getting late due to the procrastination of writing my final paper and I wanted nothing to do with Central Park. I kept claiming statements such as” I don’t want to go to the boat house if I can’t go row boating! ” and “Our hotel is on the complete opposite end of the city!” Little did I know that he was trying to plan the most special day of our lives as we knew it. In any case of events, that is not what happened. We decided to go to Nomo Kitchen for dinner bmefore my big birthday celebration. We were SUPPOSED to be a party of 6. My sister however, was running late. Her, my cousin, and best friend Lisa had asked to be there to witness this wonderful occasion. We sat down for dinner to find out that they were in bumper to bumper traffic! So….we had to eat without them. I’m sure you’re all wondering how Matthew was feeling at this point. I’m pretty sure that I saw actual sweat drop from his head. LOL. Needless to say I was starting to catch on. I said, “I hope you’re not proposing to me today.” Look at what I’m wearing! Hair ain’t done, nails ain’t done, everything ain’t did! We ate dinner (which was delicious), and it was time to go back to the hotel as I had to get ready for my birthday reservation that was scheduled for 10:00 pm. I needed at least two hours to get ready. At this point, Andrew (My fiancé’s brother) said “let’s just wait for them they want to have one drink.” I really started to think it was weird when he had suggested we wait for them. I thought, Why didn’t they text me? But whatever, knowing how long I take to get ready, I said can we please go back. So we started making our way down Nomo Soho’s beautiful archway. We took pictures under the beautiful arch where Matt thought, should I just do it now?! There’s even a picture with his hand in his pocket!! But he didn’t. He knew how badly my sister wanted to be there. We stopped at a few shops considering that I really wanted eyelashes for my big event. The girl in Duane Reade said, “Damn girl, you look good!” Looking at Matthew, “When you gunna put a ring on it?” Little did I know, that he had the ring in his pocket at that very moment. Finally, after shopping, we made our way back to the hotel that Matthew bought for us to stay in after our night was over. We got to the lobby where we ended up running into the girls. All of us now making our way up to my hotel room. Matt walked in first, and as I walked through the door I could see a dozen long stem roses sitting on the table. I thought okay he didn’t buy roses for me on my actual birthday, maybe they’re my birthday roses but then he grabbed my hand swung me around, got down on one knee, and asked “Jill, will you marry me?” As he proclaimed his love for me I started laughing nervously, and kept saying no, no , no when I realized what was happening. As the moment really set in, tears ran down my face & the word ” yes” came out of my mouth. And just like that we were engaged & had each other for fiancé’s!
We spent the rest of the evening with the best family and friends & celebrated our love all night long!
