the rumors are true!!!

if you follow me on any other social media platform,

[twitter or instagram, mostly.]

 [shameless plug.]

or if you're my real life friend,

[that's always an option too...]

you will know that my trip to new york was even more awesome than i could have ever hoped it would be.

wanna know why?

[there are many reasons actually, but mostly because...]

WE GOT ENGAGED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

bold, big font, so many exclamation points- yes, all are necessary.

do you wanna hear the story?

 i think you do.

if not, please take your cold hearted, love hating self right off this page.

just kidding.

[but really]

so anyways, here goes: 

i get on the bus early [meaning 3:45 early] last wednesday morning,

 ready to take on new york city for two full days,

bags packed of warm layers, cool gloves that i could use with my iphone, and enough reading material to last me for days.

 my roommate, lacey, and i had plans to hit all the stops that the group was going to and then some extras of our own.

little did i know how important lacey would be to our extra plans, or how awesome said plans would be.

i'll post about the whole trip later, but for now, let's skip wednesday and get right to thursday, shall we?
because thursday was the day, unbeknownst to me.
i got up and got ready, prepared for a day of sightseeing and a Broadway show that night.
lacey and i, along with some other friends, went to see the Statue of Liberty that morning, got the most delicious cheese fries known to man at Shake Shack for lunch, went up in the Empire State Building and then lace said she wanted to go see Central Park.
she'd been priming me with this for days, saying that when she came to New York with her boyfriend, they didn't have time to get to Central Park before the sun set, and talking all about this fountain from Friends and this pretty bridge that's in all these movies and blah blah blah.

silly me believed her that she really just wanted to see Central Park.

so we look up directions from Empire State Building to Central Park.
from 35th to 59th.
that's 24 blocks people.
i suggested we find the subway.
lacey said she wanted to make sure we'd have enough time to hang out there before we had to meet the group for dinner, and she wasn't sure where a subway station was.
so we walked.
we walked.
let me paint a picture for those of you who don't know lacey:
she's like 5 foot 2 with skinny little legs that move at the speed of light.
her speedwalking is my sprinting.
so there we were sprinting up 5th ave, her dodging in and out of tourists, native new yorkers, and crazy homeless people talking to themselves, me almost getting hit by cabs and stopping to catch my breath, only to get scolded.
by the time we finally arrived at Central Park, i was more than a little bit toasty.

so we're there at the bottom of the park, and silly me suggests we sit down on a bench and just take in the pretty scenary.
lace entertained me for a minute, walking over to where i pointed, saying how gorgeous it all was, but she insisted that we go see this damn fountain and bridge.
we looked it up again, and of course it's almost halfway up the park.
of course.
so we go on our way, sprinting through Central Park again, passing walkers, runners, a man blowing gigantic bubbles, and even a movie being filmed.
i want to stop and look at these interesting things, naturally, but we were on this mission.
so we get up to the fountain and it's turned off.
awesome.
i was like, oh alright, that's pretty, it'd be even cooler if it was on.
literally.
i probably would have hopped in to de-sweat [gross, right?] if that fountain was running.
good friend that i am, i didn't even suggest lolligagging this time.
[i'd learned]
i just asked which way the bridge was, turned on my way and was walking right next to lace ready to see this oh-so-important bridge.
i mean, yeah, i was excited. it's a famous bridge, whatever.
but really, i just wanted to find somewhere to sit and not die.

but we're walking on the path, i'm looking around, then i look up onto the bridge and i see ben.
but i didn't know it was him.
in my head, i saw this guy and was like "oh, that guy looks like my boyfriend".
but i'd be doing that the whole trip, confusing random strangers with people i know.
i feel like this is natural.
so whatever, i looked around for a second more, and then back to the bridge.
in those few seconds i looked away, i realized that the stranger on the bridge had ben's hat.
and was wearing ben's coat.
and then i realized:
 dear lord, no friggin way, THAT'S MY BOYFRIEND ON THE BRIDGE!!!
i pushed lacey so hard and just kept saying "no way. no freaking way!"

and i started walking.

i didn't run really at first,
[though i don't know why],
but once i got up to that bridge and it had totally sunk in that he was really here, i got there as fast as i could.
he said "hey" all casual like and i was like "hi".
meaning "hi, what are you doing here, i thought you were fixing your truck, i'm in new york city, how'd you get all the way down here, we're in central park, what are you doing here, ARE YOU PROPOSING TO ME????"
but none of that was said.
instead, he grabbed me for a big hug, and then he kissed me and told me he loved me.
and i said "i love you too! what are you doing here?"
and he told me he wants to spend his life with me and i said "you do?"
and he got down on his knee and ASKED IF WOULD MARRY HIM!!!!

in my head, my answer was:
yes, yes, yes, a thousand times yes.
of course, forever and a day, no doubt in my mind, yes.
outloud, however, i'm pretty it just came out as:
"AHHHH!!!!"
i jumped in the air, hands flying and all, and i must have given him some sort of positive answer because he got up and hugged me and kissed me and we were so in love.

and then i finally got a good look at my ring.
good lord, my ring.

it's perfect.
so gorgeous, so pretty, so shiny.
my dream ring.
i lost my glove in this whole process cause i'm pretty sure i just threw it off my left hand to get this dang thing on my finger, but as megan pointed out, a ring for a glove is a pretty fair trade.
i'd have to agree.
hopefully some homeless man picked it up and is now a little bit warmer from my/our [g]love.
[you can go throw up now]

anyways, lacey was there the whole time, standing at the end of the bridge, recording a video of the whole thing.
i'm not gonna share it cause that's our special thing and cause it's a little far away, but i'm definitely thankful she was there.
she came up to us after a few minutes of hugging and kissing and giggling and being giddy and newly engaged and offered to take some pictures of my new fiance and i :)
but ben wanted to show us the bench he'd sat on, waiting for 3 hours, and take pictures there, so we made our way around the corner, and
here are those pictures that i'm going to treasure forever:
[so.many.pictures.
and such an awkward hand!
the new ring confused me.]

so there ya have it.

the story of how we got engaged.

but i just realized i left out some important details.

i always do that.

so even though this post is so long already, let me piece everything together for you now:

the trip that i went on was my senior trip for college.

ben and i met at school and are the same year, but because of his whole deployment situation last semester and missing school, he's not coming back this semester.

so he couldn't come on the trip.

i had asked been bugging him to come down anyways, and just do the excursions he wanted to with us, his own thing when he didn't, and then maybe stay an extra day in the city.

but he said it'd be too much money, he was doing work on his truck, how would he get down, blah blah blah.

he convinced me it wasn't going to happen.

but basically he was a professional liar.

him and lacey had gone ring shopping on monday, planned this whole thing, and as i was being a tourist all day in the city, he was driving 6 hours from rochester to manhattan just to propose to me.

all 6 hours for just 30 seconds of a proposal.

what a sweet man i'm marrying.

so he spent the night with us, obviously.

we walked back to the hotel [only 15 blocks this time] and surprised all of our friends, saw the group leaders, who were so happy for us and totally fine with him crashing the party, and he came along to dinner out and seeing The Phantom of the Opera, and then we celebrated with some friends out afterwards.

what a whirlwind of a night.

the next day we left the hotel when the group did, but took the subway [thank the lord!] back to his truck parked up by central park, and had a whole roadtrip home to ourselves.

oh my gosh, it was so much fun.

so in the past 6 days we've been engaged, we've just been soaking it in.

he's my fiance now.

woah.

we've also booked a place for the ceremony and reception, which is the same place, and i may or may not have gotten a dress.

[clue: i did. heck yes, i did.]

so needless to say, we're excited.

july 13, 2012, ben and i will be husband and wife.

ho.ly.cow.