Monday, July 5, 2010

Project: Secret Mission Engagement


Okay everyone, I know I have been promising this blog scoop on what exactly was going on last Thursday, and I have been putting it off because I wanted to add pictures to show exactly what I was talking about. But alas I misplaced the SD card (I often lose anything important) and since it doesn't show any sign of showing up soon I shall have to write it with the few picture I took on my phone.

Alright story time fellows!

Last year a wonderful lad named James used to come into the bookstore where his friends Mike and Zoë worked. They all worked at Rutgers University, on the Busch Campus and James would visit the store to buy coffee. Sometime last year he was introduced to Sharon, who also worked with Zoë and Mike. With lots of encouragement from his friends, James asked out the lovely Sharon to lunch, & as they say-it was it from there.

After many ups & downs (& an adorable kitten named Yuengling) the pair agreed to get married at 2 o'clock in the morning after a long weekend of AnimeNext, the anime convention James helps run.

The engagement was announced, which made it Facebook official that day by Sharon, but James had not yet bought her a ring. He needed to find the perfect one, something unique to fit Sharon's personality. A week later the ring arrived in the mail & as soon as he left work he called Zoë to tell her to tell her mom not to pick her up from work because he had a million ideas to bounce off of her! (This the normality between the two of them).

And so James picked up Zoë & Mike & proceeded to tell them his scheming ideas.

Thus began a crazy couple of days. James was too excited to drive that Monday when he picked us up, so he pulled over to the shoulder of a very busy road and proceeded to tell us his plans. He pulled out a little red box and handed it to me with a grin.

Now, it is pretty well know in my group of friends how obsessed I am with weddings. I love the planning and the dress and the invitations and just everything that goes hand in hand with a special day that marks the beginning of generations of stories. So when James handed me the little red box, I nearly died when I opened it.

Inside was a gorgeous black diamond set on a white gold band. He said it would appeal to Sharon's former goth life. And although it would seem untraditional to both their Chinese parents, James bought her the ring of her dreams.

Now, they both had already agreed to get married, but James still wanted to officially propose in a grand gesture. This man is ALL about the grand gesture. To even ask her out to be his girlfriend he bought Sharon her favorite old school computer game. BUT he sent her on a quest all over town to collect all the CDs without even letting her know it was him doing it all for her! He's always buying her small things and hiding them in her suitcase, or closet or by her breakfast. This man makes the rest of them look terribly bad =)

Therefore, he had a lot to live up to this time around. The plan, he began to tell us, was this:

He would take her out to dinner, somewhere nice, around 7pm Thursday night. Afterwards he would make up an excuse to visit the CORE building on Campus, which is the highest building owned by the school. Once he "picked up something important", he would take the elevator up to the 7th floor, then up another flight of stairs to the entrance of the utilities section, which one has to pass through to reach the roof of the building.
Once they got to the door of the utilities floor, Sharon would see a picture of a tiny star falling from a parachute with a note that says:

I gaze up at the sky each night
and find the brightest star.
It's always waiting there for me
so close, but yet so far.

Then as he opened up the door, he would lead her through the warehouse looking floor full of huge air vents and ect. Around the corner on a post would be another card that read

The star winks in the evening sky
and reaches out to me.
It magically appears each night
for all the world to see.

Continuing on their way James would lead Sharon to a door to the outside, with a note on the door that read

I've wished upon this special star
my whole life through, it seems.
I've closed my eyes and made my wish
of hopes, and plans, and dreams.

Then James would take Sharon outside, where one could see for miles & miles & miles away. You can even see the Manhattan skyline on a clear night. Now he would take her for a walk around the roof, and then stumble upon a little red box with a note sticking out of it. The note would simply read, "What do stars do?" which is a line from Neil Gaiman's Stardust novel. (Which is one of Sharon's favorite authors).

Sharon would open this box and yet there would be nothing inside. Now, the entire time they were up there, the two would see a single twinkling light in the middle of the vast golf course across the way. Now, in the middle of this city full of lights are cars and people, there is a huge golf course which is dark and foreboding at night. And yet they would see this magical twinkle amongst the darkness

At this point James would suggest that they go and venture to see what that light was. And so they would travel back down the building and sneak into the the golf course. At this point, it would be around 9:30 a night. They would sneak through the surrounding woods & following the twinkling light half way across the vast golf course and come upon a crater in the sand.

This crater would look as though a fallen star had crashed down to earth and in the center would be a tiny LED light with a note that answered the previous question: "They Shine" , which is also from Stardust.

Now, from this crater, a small red laser would be hidden in the grass and would be pointing to a tree a few yards away. James and Sharon would follow this laser beam to the tree which would have another note nailed to it...with the ring around the nail. The note would say:

And then, one day I got my wish
for I finally met you.
You are that someone special
who's made all my dreams come true.

Thus James would officially get down on one knee & propose. If she said yes, which we all of course can safely assume she would, James would kiss her and give her the last note which concluded the poem:

So now whenever we're apart
I find that same bright star.
It makes me feel so close to you
no matter where you are.

Thus they would live happily ever after.


Now this all seems very romantic and elaborate, correct? A very worthy mission and so ridiculous that it seems impossible. But nothing is impossible nor too elaborate to James. The catch is, James would not in a million years be able to pull this off by himself. Even if he was able to set up the warehouse section, the golf course would be impossible to set up in time.

This is where Mike and I come in.

Basically Wednesday night James walked Mike & I through the whole process. He was able to gain access to a swipe card to the building & a key to the roof-both of which he gave to me, AS WELL AS THE ENGAGEMENT RING.

This was not such a good idea. I misplaced the keys many times before I actually had to use them. It was a very stressful amount of time for me.

James showed us how to place all the notes, where in the golf course to dig the crater, how to set up the laser beam and ect. James then sent Mike out to the golf course while he and I were still on the roof, to test drive the twinkling star effect. It took a bit, but when Mike called James to say he was ready & James gave the cue,

I nearly died. The tiny LED light shone so bright and so far, it twinkled like a real fallen star. I squealed so loud and so much that Mike laughed on the phone. Now at this point, I started to believe. I was skeptical of this whole deal because it was so very ridiculous. But once I saw that star in the middle of all that vast darkness, I believed in the magic of all things love brings.

Then James & I met Mike on the golf course to further plan for the following day.


The next morning while at work James texted me : "I can't concentrate."

And for sure neither could I, considering I misplaced all the poem notes and the keys about a million times before I left for work that morning. The whole day at the office Mike & were anxious and could not get anything done. As soon as work was over Mike's mom stopped by and wanted to be a part of it all.

I had stopped at Party City before work that morning (and got a flat tire as well. Things are never simple nor boring with me apparently.) and at the store I bought ten bucks worth of gold & silver star shaped confetti. I had some of my own plans up my sleeve =)

Now after work Mike's mom grabbed us & took us to Wal-Mart because she was terribly excited about everything too. I suggested that we buy some LED candles for the roof top scene, a few star shaped glass candle holders, and white ribbon to hang in the trees on the golf course. Mike also bought wine & a blanket to lay by the tree where the ring is so that they have something to sit on afterwards. After the trip we grabbed some McDonald's (walnut salad for this vegetarian!) and then made it back to campus.

Now, by this time it was around 7:30, and James & Sharon wouldn't make it to the CORE building until 9:15, so we had plently of time to set up and hang out. In order for James to get into the building once we left, I had to hide the slide card key under a rock by the entry door to get into the building.


Afterwards, it was at this point that I changed into my Secret Agent on a Mission outfit =)

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Now if you know me decently well, I will jump at any excuse to dress up in costume. This includes cosplaying and Halloween and ect, however this was a secret mission. And I needed to this Kim Possible style. So I pulled on black leggins, a tank top, my Canary combat boots, my Ramona goggles, & my AWESOME utility belt. =) Then I also put the engagement ring on my air plane necklace so that I would NOT lose it (for the love of god.)


Mike & I had a lot of time to kill, so we climbed up a ridiculously scary ladder to the highest part of the buliding and hung out on the roof.

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Mike pulled in his laptop & we listened to music and watched the sun set. He texted his lovely girlfriend Rachel, whom I adore and I texted my own favorite person & tweeted my wonderful little birds. Mostly Mike wished that Rachel would switch spots with me because the sun set was terribly romantic. I mean, you could see for MILES up there. All the far away hills, the vast river and my whole world basically.

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Around 8 o'clock we went back down and began setting up. Now, this is where Mike and I took SO many pictures, really documenting all of the things we did, but alas I'm a moronic mess & cannot find the stupid SD card. The moment I do though, I will post more pictures. Thank goodness I was sending so many pictures to my friend Bryan so I had some things on my phone.

I taped all the notes with the poem lines in all the places James told me, plus scattered the glitter along the trail to the roof top door.

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Then we went back outside and set up the little LED candles. God, I must say we did such a good job, it looked terribly romantic =)

Mike had the idea to make the candles trail out in the direction of the golf course. See all those trees? Imagine a bright twinkling light shining through all that darkness =)

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SO romantic huh? Terribly beautiful, I'll add another picture.

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Now that everything up on the roof was set up, Mike and I gathered up ALL of our stuff and made our way downstairs to the lobby of the building. We went and found a vending machine and grabbed the shovel James had hidden behind it earlier in the day. It was then that James texted Mike saying he was ON HIS WAY.

Mike & I flipped out because James was ahead of schedule! So I grabbed this HUGE shovel (seriously, it was four feet long) and we ran with all our stuff to the golf course, venturing through the woods to sneak in.

We start running across the golf course when Mike hisses at me to stop & we froze. There were still golfers on the course.

Fuck.

We dropped to the ground, and tried to hide behind some trees. But we didn't have any time left to waste! So I dropped the shovel by a tree, because really. We looked skeevy enough as it is. Mike & I walked causality passed the golfers, and I waved hi to them to try and make it seem LESS shady. However, I knew my efforts were wasted because Mike was wearing a tank top, smoking a cigarette, and was covered in tattoos. And then I was in black spandex and combat boots and goggles. We looked like grave robbers.

The golfers just stared at us as they walked by, and as soon as they went along the path we high tailed ASS to the sand pit where the magic was going to happen. Mike started to carve James & Sharon's initials in the tree and I RAN back to the shovel.

At this point, while running back with this big ass shovel, I started to crack myself. Just picture this: Here I was running across a golf course in the middle of the night, dressed in black spandex, and combat boots with this BIG ass shovel. The notion just amused the shit out of me and I nearly tripped from laughing so hard.

So I got back and tried to dig this crater pit. But I failed miserably and ran to Mike who had just finished carving the tree. I told him to take over the sand pit while I set up the tree spot.

I tied the white ribbon around the tree, tuck the last poem in and then removed the diamond ring from around my neck & attached it to the tree. I then ran back to Mike, who had made the sand pit look JUST like a crater hit, it was brilliant. Then he set up the red laser in the grass. I ran back to the tree and helped guide the laser beam so that it hit the diamond perfectly.


Then Mike & I grabbed all of the stuff and hide behind this row of trees. I seated myself down and we calmed down for a few minutes. Then Mike realized that he forgot about the wine & the blanket so he ran back to set that stuff up.

So there I was, finally taking a break and just hanging out in the dirt, tweeting & texting when I heard this noise. I look up (by now its effin pitch black out) I'm thinking to myself....What the hell is that, holy shit its a bear, I'm going to die out here in combat boots and I wont get to write my book I'm fucked.

Nope. Wasn't a bear. Just the fucking sprinklers.

So, being down poured on, I jumped up, grabbed all of our bags and ran along the trees to a farther spot away. Did I mention I was soaked?

After a moment Mike comes back and sits down, pissed off. I ask him whats wrong and he says that James texted him. Apparently Sharon had a glass of some sort of alcohol at dinner and she was currently in the bathroom of the CORE building on the 1st floor. They hadn't even made it up the stairs yet.

"What the hell?" I asked.
"I know right?" says Mike. He lites up another cigarette and then looks at me in the dark. "Why the hell are you wet?"
"The sprinklers turned on," I said flatly, glaring in the light of his smoke.

Mike just shook his head and we waited. And then waited. And then waited some more. Then Mike started getting angry text messages from the lovely Rachel, who was drunk & upset apparently because she hadn't seen Mike all week.

Now the next half hour was just sitting in the dark, texting James to NOT ABORT THE MISSION UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES as well as trying to convince Rachel that Mike did not hate her.

Then at one point Mike was so aggravated that he needed to go for a walk, so he got up and left and I'm sitting by myself again. After a bit of me sitting in the dark, I hear weird noises again. My first thought is that there are dangerous animals like lions and tigers and cougars and panthers roaming in the woods and I'm going to die out here. Or real grave robbing rapist and I wont be able to run away because my laptop is with me and my novel is ON the laptop, I would lose everything and just well.

You guess it, the sprinklers came back on, but this time a different set of them. Ones RIGHT NEXT TO ME. So just as I was starting to dry off, I am soaked again and running like mad to move all our stuff ever further away. Now I'm wet and dirty and very unhappy.

Then James says they are on the move again and everything is better!


I text James to HURRY HIS ASS UP. He responds five minutes later with a picture:

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with a caption of simply: "yikes."

I asked what the hell is going on and he says that Sharon fell asleep in the lobby of the 7th floor.


Around this time Mike comes back even more pissed off because Rachel left wherever she was and told him she was driving to campus now to find him because if she didn't see him tonight, he would not see her for the rest of the week.

I just kind of grumbled and MIke sat down.

"Why are you wet again?" he asked.
"Fuck my life," I grumble, laying down in the grass. Mike lays down next to me and I tell him what James sent me.

For the next ten minutes we basically complain about life and ect, for what else shall you do at 10:30 at night in the dark soaking wet on a golf course?

FINALLY James sends us a text message saying they are making their way to the roof. We jump us and run back to the sand pit. We wait some more, until James texts to cue the twinkling light. Mike manages that for a bit until James says that Sharon and he have left the CORE building & are on their way to the golf course.

Mike starts to worry that Rachel will run into James & Sharon on the way over and I am just tired.

Mike leaves the light in the sand pit and now we just wait until they show up. We are too far away to really see anything specific but they go through the whole process and James proposes officially and we can only assume she said yes because they sit down.

And then we wait. James was supposed to call us over as soon as it was all over but he wasn't. Mike is flipping out next to me because Rachel is somewhere on this golf course apparently. She sent Mike a text saying she was there and was "staring at some crazy ass red statue" whatever that meant.

Finally James calls us over. We run over and lots of hugs and congrats are given. Then suddenly Mike grabs all his things, says goodnight, and runs off into the darkness. I explain to James & Sharon's confused faces what happened with Rachel and they "ohhhhh."

We talk about how everything went and what Sharon was thinking the whole time and ect. Then they proceed to whisper and hugs and lots of similar romantic gushy things. And I sit there kinda like, okay....because my phone was dead at this point from all my tweeting.

After a while we pack everything up, gather up the star lights from the roof, and ect. Oh, I also climb into an air condition vent just because I could:

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And then James took me home and that was that.


The thing I do remember specifically though, was what James said at one point.

I had told him that by doing such an elaborate grand gesture like this, it'll be pretty difficult to out do himself. And he said,

"That's the whole point. I'm willing to spend the rest of my life trying to out do myself to prove to her how much I love her."

I don't think it gets any better than that

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