NYC: DAY 2

Yo people.

Day 2 was all sorts of awesome.

I slept in until noon. Some of you may think I'm crazy because who would do that in a new city? The answer to that is ME. I would. I sleep in on trips. It makes for a much more smoother trip when I am well rested and happy. OK?

Little did I know, this was a good thing because Kirk was working out all the kinks and details of the proposal.

We finally got outside and did some adventuring.

Kirk's friend mapped out a TON of things we should do and we literally did ONE of those things. New York is not a city of many things in one day unless you start early in the morning.

Kirk and I wandered around Wall Street and saw Ground Zero.

Kirk's friend Nick (Nick is probably the person we can credit for our recent engagement... actually probably to credit for the entire relationship. Maybe a blog post on the story of Kirk and Alix is necessary. If you are all interested.)

Anyway, turns out, Nick was in NYC and so we met up with him for a little lunch around the Hudson River? (I'm not sure, but it was a waterfront.)

Nick took us to his hotel room where he had an amazing view of ground zero. That place is breathtaking. I stared at it in awe... the fear and emotions from that day were palpable.

After that, Nick took us on our first ride on a subway. I recommend a tour guide for New York. Especially the subways... I don't know how people ride those things everyday - mostly in the summertime. It. WAS. HOT. Kirk likened it to walking into the pits of hell. Kirk knows...?

But seriously.

We made it to downtown and did some shopping at H&M. It was magical. I got many awesome things and so did Kirk. It was one of the first times Kirk and I had enjoyable shopping experiences together. Usually I shop by my lonesome. :)

After doing some damage at H&M, we walked up 5th AVE and happened upon Rockefeller Plaza.

We took the elevators to the very top and the elevator was SO cool. They make the top clear and you can see inside the elevator shaft as you ride up and down. It was weird and made me a little nauseous, but awesome at the same time. The views were AMAZING. This city is GINORMOUS! We spent a long time up there just soaking up the views and feeling the energy - the hustle and bustle even at 10pm.

I secretly wished we would see a famous face but no such luck. Not many celebrity sitings occur on Sunday nights at 30 Rock.

After 30 Rock, we ran into a nice little magician man who stole our attention... he showed us a few card tricks and made me a lovely balloon animal. I believe his name was Merlin (how original.)

We walked over to Time Square and it was nuts! SO MANY PEOPLE! It was like daytime in the middle of the night.

Kirk got sucked in to get a caricature of us and it turned out looking nothing like us! haha I tried to warn him!

At this point, we were exhausted... we tried to take a subway back to the hotel but one of the trains closes after midnight and we could not figure out how to get back. Well, I'm sure we would be able to figure it out I mean, I had a map and all... but, it was so dang hot.

(the subway, almost unbearable.)

We had to jump to different subway entrances and Kirk had enough of the million degree subways. His lips were all white and he was really pale... He looked like he was going to pass out. So we gave in and took a cab to our final destination.

WHEW! We were happy to be in a nice air conditioned room and happy planning our next day. :)

NYC: DAY 1

My trip to NYC needs about 35 different posts.

And for some reason posting all the pictures on here kills me. It takes forever and they always need to be manually moved around and blah blah blah. And I am complaining because it really is quite the chore ok?

However, the trip was fabulous.

Minus the scorching heat that I have previously mentioned, we managed to stay alive and not melt.

I want to go back in the fall with Kirk and do more fun things.

So here goes the story:

Day ONE:

We arrived in Newark Airport at about 9:30pm. We had to find a way to get in the city and we missed the train by about 3 minutes and the next train was supposed to come in 45 minutes. 45 more minutes in the airport seemed like such a drag so we found a bus that could take us and so we opted for that.

We were dropped off on 5th Ave and some street I don't know. Just about 2 blocks from our hotel. We walked and walked and walked and walked with our suitcases through the city. My suitcase was already 49 lbs. (Don't worry, I did some major shopping whilst there.) I immediately felt like a New Yorker walking through the city with my belongings. People do so much walking carrying stuff there...

We got to the hotel and they were booked and gave away our reservation! Uh... isn't that what a reservation is for? So they don't give it away? Anyway, they gave us $80 and hailed a cab for us (how thoughtful) and sent us to their sister hotel on Wall Street... FAR AWAY. We were supposed to be staying more Downtown so we could be kind of in the middle of everything. But we were able to see the Brooklyn bridge and check out some of the city on the drive. Kirk's 2nd ride in a cab was successful. No crazy driving - but don't you worry yourselves, crazy cab drivers were present on our trip.

By this time, it was about 11pm and Kirk and I were STARVING! So we went adventuring out into the world and found a random pizza bar and ate some thin crust pizza.

It was fun to kind of walk around Wall Street at night and get a feel of what the financial district is like. It reminded me of San Francisco... since they are TOTALLY comparable. Haha...

We finally went to sleep around 1am and I slept in like CRAZY the next day.

Day TWO coming soon.

the story of the proposal. nyc style.

OK OK OK OK OK.

Listen to me.

By now you may have heard the news...

I'm ENGAGED!!!!!

Would you like to hear the full story? Ok, I guess I will tell you.

It's a good one.

It all began about 2 weeks ago.

My birthday was coming up and I wanted to go to Vegas and had been wanting to go for my birthday for months. Kirk had to go to San Francisco for business before Vegas (finalizing funding for his business... big deal, big big deal) and Kirk had mentioned how he needed to possibly go to NYC for work around the same time as San Fran and Vegas. So he offered to take me there for my birthday after Vegas. And I was like, DUH! Who wouldn't accept such a wondrous trip??

Move forward to the day before Kirk leaves for San Francisco.

Kirk and I were talking and I was getting really annoyed with him and how he had been working so much for the past 4 months.

I was all, "Listen, I don't even know if I want to go on this trip with you because I don't want to be having to do everything by myself because you're working. That's lame!"

And he was all, "Well, what can I do to make it better?"

And I was all, "Don't go to San Francisco. Stay here with me!"

I'm so selfish, I already know this. Looking back at this conversation, I'm slightly embarrassed at how I acted because little did I know that I would be an engaged woman soon, and this is no way for such a lady to act. How needy and crazy am I?

Kirk said, "Listen, I HAVE to go to San Francisco."

And I said, "Well, this just proves that all you care about is work. You don't even care about me."

Reasonable, right?

Kirk was silent for a minute or two. I could tell I was a little bit out of line and kind of hurt his feelings. But I was standing my ground. The last thing I want is a boyfriend who is a workaholic.

He then turned to me and said, "Alix, listen, I have to go to San Francisco. Not just for work but also because I need to talk to your dad."

Me: Shocked. Confused. About to cry and mostly confused. "Wait... why?"

Kirk took a deep breath and said, "I want to marry you and be with you and I want to ask for your dad's permission so I can ask you when I feel the time is right."

Me: Feeling stupid and rather ashamed for my immature and child-like behavior. I was getting on his case for not making this relationship work and he was doing the opposite. Yes, sheepish is what I was feeling. "Oh... Well, um... Well, uh... oh. Ok."

That settled that argument.

Then Vegas.

I met up with my cousin and her boyfriend who are also thinking about tying the knot and she mentioned that we should go ring shopping. The discussion Kirk and I had days earlier led me to believe that said engagement wouldn't happen for quite some time. He knew I wanted to pick out my ring and that I wanted him to be a part of it and we had some pretty sick connections to a diamond appraiser that we definitely wanted to take advantage of.

I told my cousin I would go with her but that I wouldn't really try on anything... I have no idea what I want. And I don't want to look like one of those silly girls who tries on rings after one or two mentions of marriage. That is SO not me.

My cousin was all, "Listen to me Alix, you're going to have to try on rings. And I am going to tell you something: Kirk asked me to help him figure out what kind of rings you like. So, you have to try some on. I'm sorry just told you that but, I just KNOW you won't try on any rings unless I told you that."

Me: "Uh... Oh... Well... Ok."

So we tried on a few and I liked a lot of them. Diamonds really are my best friend. And just go with everything.

The last night we were in Vegas, Kirk, Travis, Rachel and I were walking through the Aria hotel and they had a random jewelry store. We walked inside and browsed. I was looking at some rings that were in the displays and a lady asked me if I wanted to try one on. I said sure and she pulled out the one I wanted. I loved it. Only one problem: not a real diamond. Not exactly what I wanted. But it was still gorgeous.

I gave back the ring and left the Aria, never to see it again...

Or so I thought.

New York City.

If I were to liken that city to any beverage it would be a quadruple shot espresso with a martini olive on the side.

Like walking in between classes in high school. People everywhere.

CRAZY.

That's what it is.

It was hot. Sticky. Steamy. Sweaty. And a lot of walking.

OH, and absolutely breathtaking. I could not believe I was there and that I was seeing things I had only seen in movies.

(A post on New York City to come)

For my birthday, Kirk's friend Clint had hooked us up with some SWEET tickets to see Wicked on Broadway. It was seriously amazing. Everything looked like it was picture perfect. We laughed, we cried. It was awesome.

After the show, Kirk wanted to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge.

I, on the other hand, was tired, my feet were on fire and extremely hot.

But I agreed to the adventure. I heard the Brooklyn Bridge had some spectacular views and I really would regret passing it up.

We started to walk and it. was. hot.

I was dying.

Kirk tried stopping us a few times to take pictures and stuff but I was not having it. Nowhere to sit, no breeze and my feet. Oh my poor feet.

We got towards the end of the bridge and there was a little area to sit on some benches so we took a little break and sat down.

I continued to complain about the status of my piglets and show him my dime-size blisters.

Romantical, I know.

Kirk then turned to me and said, "Hey! It's time to give you your birthday present!"

Me: "YES! What is it? I don't see any presents on you..."

Kirk then got up and got down on one knee.

Me: "Ohmygosh. Ohmygosh. Ohmygosh. Ohmygosh."

Kirk pulled out a ring that looked very familiar to me. The ring from the Aria! I almost grabbed it out of his hand. Habit I suppose.

Kirk: "Alix, I love you and want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?"

Of course I said.....................

..............................

.................................................

............................

"No."

Kirk: "What? Really?"

Me: "No!"

Kirk: "Wait... no, yes? Or no, no?"

Me: "YES YES YES!!! Of COURSE I will marry you!"

We sat on the benches for a while afterward just talking and I was trying to connect all the dots.

Kirk told me that while we were walking on the bridge, he was trying to stop me and propose to me. He said that every time we stopped he would get all ready and I would walk away and say, "Let's keep walking! Too hot!"

Kirk was all disappointed and thought that it wouldn't happen on the Brooklyn Bridge like he had been planning for weeks.

Poor guy...

The ring was also tough for him to get. He told me that when he saw me try it on at the place, he could see in my face that I liked it and that when we left, he sensed a sadness from me. Intuitive, right?

He tried to get to the jewelry store the morning we left but they were closed and didn't open until after our flight left. He called and tried to get the ring shipped to the place we were staying in NY. They finally agreed to overnight it and it came the DAY OF. Talk about lucky!

But Kirk wants me to have a REAL diamond and one that is EXACTLY what I want.

I told him that I didn't care and Kirk was like, "I CARE!"

So you may see a different ring on my finger soon.

My dad: When Kirk went to San Francisco, he didn't think to call my dad before he left. So when he got there, he called my dad to invite him to dinner but my dad was in Hawaii! So the day OF the proposal, Kirk got a hold of my dad and said he was planning on proposing tonight and my dad said, "YES YES YES YES!!! We would LOVE to have you be a part of the family! And we love you both!"

That was easy.

Since it was such a surprise, we don't have a date, a location or even a COLOR that we can decide on.

There are times where I feel like I am just playing house and my ring is just pretend. And there are times where I get giddy and weirded out that I am ENGAGED!!!!

I will keep you posted on any updates!

But for now, we are just enjoying engagement and calling each other fiancé.