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January 19, 2005

An Engagement Story!

Ok. I know you have all been waiting for this post, but honestly did you want to find out about an engagement via the web! let's get real. I did it 80's style and called everyone with a rotary phone. In order to give the shark blog readers what they want. Here is our whole engagement story - shark is getting soft on this one.

Sept. 5 2003 - We meet On this day Pepe and Donna landed in town from Colorado and we went to a Yanks-Sox game. Rich and Colleen joined us and Rich is very serious about the game! We had a few yankee crack beers and then headed out on a recommendation from the goat, Matt Fiorillo, to Pat O'briens on 88th and 2nd. Meanwhile, Jeannine and Kaitlin were celebrating their 1 year living in nyc anniversary by slugging back cocktails at the met museum. The night is a blur, with shots being poured everywhere and natty lights by the dozen, but then I saw Jeannine; My dream girl. We say she told me "nice hat punk" in reference to my yanks hat, her being a red sox die hard. Regardless we shared a natty light and found out we were both from the Hudson Valley, me from Highland and Jeannine from a rival high school, Roundout.

Typical small world discussion lead to family talk. We found out our moms' worked at the same place. When Jeannine called her mom and asked if she knew my mom, she shouted "Judy Ryan - we've been friends with them for 25 years!" Our parents had gone to Marriage Encounters together and both dads' dry sense of humor got them through it! I actually had been over Jeannine's house when I was 2 years old and jeannine was just a toddler. Here's a pic of Jeannine and Colleen on that very special first night we met. (check out the shady guy in the background checking them out)

Engagement Night - Thursday, January 13th 2005!
I finally got to pickup the ring from the shady diamond disctrict and was tired of it hidden in my underwear drawer. Thursday was the night. I called her dad to get the OK and made reservations for dinner. The hook was to lure her with a celebration of her new job at NY Presbyterian. That day her apartment lost heat and hot water so when i got there to pick her up she was in a fowl mood. I knew things would look up later. We went out for a drink at Shag in the west village and a great bartender served us up some fancy cocktails. We then headed to our favorite nyc restauarant, the Place. We had a spectacular dinner. The place is top notch and had a great bottle of wine, liberty school. This is the first time ever that Jeannine did not tackle the waitress for the cork (she collects them for her scrapbook ) We actually don't have the cork - a new beginning. Afterwards we traveled to the west coast.

Note: This is a reenactment of the "down on one knee". We came back afterwards to take pictures with Kaitlin.

Jeannine didn't have a clue because I was not nervous at all. I was ready and cool, calm and collected. It was a beautiful night about 60 degrees and we decided to head to hudson river park. This park is amazing and a true feet of the bloomberg administration. We enjoy weekend walks to battery park along the water admiring the awesome apartments we will never live in. It's a special place for us and right by Jane Street, where Jeannine lives.

We first sat on a park bench and just held hands for a bit admiring the view of beautiful jersey city. People kept sitting by us on the benches and I wasn't going to propose like that. Getting frustrated with all the activity (how dare people excercise at 11pm when i'm trying to get engaged) I asked Jeannine to take a walk to the pier. When I got to the pier i went into my "on bended knee speech". I was pretty smooth of course but as soon as i started i knew if i got tied up i would just have to drop. I sain Jeannine's full name and then dropped on one knee. As i dropped she started to realize what was going on and started to get excited. Her arms were moving like a chicken and tears started to spew out of her eyes like a sprinkler. She was moving her arms so much i couldn't get the ring on her finger and had to ask her to calm down so she didn't knock the ring into the hudson.

To this day i can't remember if she accepted or not. I had no idea where I actually proposed, but later we found out it was right on the Jane Street engraved granite.

As I turned around I realized it was right in front of the new men's bathroom - sweet. There was also a beautiful - no Barbeques sign and you all know how i love bbq.

After the proposal what did we do? jeannine yelled to a lady walking her dog - i'm getting married. She ignored her. We then told 2 guys from the village and they celebrated with us jumping up and down. What else - cell phone of course. Jeannine called her dad and said crying " dad, a boy wants to marry me" I called my mom and she was happy as well - she had no idea i was going to propose.

We came back later for a kiss!

and a picture together!

Jeannine with the new bling bling!

The original bench that i was supposed to propose on.

the park rangers that let us stay in the park after closing since we just got engaged. Jeannine chatted with them for a while.

Every girl asks what's the ring look like.. i say it's nice. Here's a sneak peak. Round cut hearts and arrows with 2 tapered baquettes on each side set in the ring.

The sky was really cool that night - ahh Jersey - I love ya!

January 16th Engagement La la land is over - get planning
I guess i didn't know what i was in for until we started looking at places and everything around the whole wedding. We actually got very lucky by finding a country club that is available in septemeber - we haven't confirmed the date yet, but here's a sneak peak of a view from the place overlooking the catskills and the 18th hole. It is awesome! I hope they serve stuff wrapped in bacon!

Not 30 seconds after the engagement did Jeannie have 25 wedding magazines. Scottish wedding, martha stewart wedding, new york metro wedding, new york upstate including vermont wedding, wedding reception ideas for crazy people - truly insane but i am enjoying it. The project manager in me is already sending out proposals for bid!

Hope you enjoyed our engagement story and can't wait to share this special day with the friends and family that are so dear to both of us!! Sharkblog will now be back to his regularly scheduled program but you'll get to hear all about wedding planning!

Posted by Patrick at January 19, 2005 03:55 PM

Comments

Posted by: Karen at January 19, 2005 06:50 PM

Posted by: Cara at January 19, 2005 08:47 PM

Posted by: Kati and Pete at January 19, 2005 09:52 PM

Posted by: Donna at January 20, 2005 08:43 AM

Posted by: Ed "Lord" Winstanley at January 20, 2005 11:08 AM

Posted by: Kaitlin at January 20, 2005 11:51 AM

Posted by: patrick at January 20, 2005 12:09 PM

Posted by: Ed Winstanley at January 20, 2005 12:49 PM

Posted by: shoespleaz at January 20, 2005 04:44 PM

Posted by: Lord Winstanley at January 20, 2005 05:03 PM

Posted by: youronlyalbanyfan at January 23, 2005 05:20 PM

Posted by: Mom and Dad Ryan at February 28, 2005 02:22 PM