how it all went down 
This past semester has been one of the busiest for Oliver and me with work, school and sg leading (together!). We barely had any quality time together, so Ollie told me he had planned a couple surprise dates (since i love love loveee surprises!) for us when we got back home to the east coast.
For our first surprise date, he took me shopping, we saw Tangled in 3D (very good movie btw) and then dinner at a delicious Thai restaurant.
At the end of the date, he told me the theme for this week was “firsts”. Our first hangout as friends on the east coast was at the mall he just took me to. I guessed that our next date was going to see a Broadway musical because our first official date as a couple was going to see The Little Mermaid on Broadway. He wouldn’t tell me anything else except to just dress appropriately and to be ready at 12:10PM. He would come by and we would take the LIRR (Long Island Railroad) into the city together.
Wednesday morning (the day he proposed) he texted me and asked me if he could actually meet me in the city since he had to run an urgent errand for his brother and didn’t have time to come meet me at my house. Of course, I said “Yes”. However, when I got there, he was having a hard time finding parking and also doesn’t know Penn Station that well =P. We finally found each other and he led me to a cab to take up 8th avenue to the theater! I was really surprised and happy because 1) I get cold SO EASILY and didn’t really want to walk the 10 blocks in the cold and 2) we could have just taken the subway up haha.
At this point, I’m still not sure what musical we are seeing so I’m trying to guess. I see a “Billy Elliot” sign and I think it’s that but then when I see the theater for “In the Heights” I KNOW that’s what we are seeing!!! Ever since we did the “Over 1,000″ number for HTS last year, I really wanted to see it! The line was really long so we waited inside the Marriott hotel next door until the theater opened up to seat us
“In the Heights” was AMAZING!!! we both LOVED it!! and highly recommend it =)
After the show was over, we left the theater and within 30 seconds I was already freezing. I told him I had to go to the bathroom because the line at intermission had been too long. Since everyone was exiting the theater, the sidewalk was extremely crowded so we crossed to the other side to escape the chaos and we go into the hotel that’s right there (Paramount Hotel). I was a little nervous to go in there because there were two guards at the entrance and I didn’t know if we were allowed to be in there! But Ollie just said “Act casual!”
We walk around to try to find the bathroom and as we do we pass the mezzanine restaurant in the hotel. After we had done our business he suggested getting a cup of tea at the restaurant and we could have some time to sit and talk before we went to dinner since he wasn’t that hungry yet. I agreed since I really liked the relaxing and modern atmosphere.
We ordered tea (most expensive tea EVER btw, but that’s NYC for you…haha) and talked for a little while until Ollie told me he had a bad stomach ache and excused himself. He asked if I would be okay by myself but I quickly waved him away and told him to go take care of it 
I busied myself taking pictures like this
and reading the playbill from “In the Heights”. After a long while, he came back and I asked if he was feeling better. He said he was and then he said “Actually, I lied to you. There is a reason we are here. Come follow me.” I was a little confused but followed him anyway. We come to an elevator and he said that when we got inside I had to close my eyes (by here I kind of guessed he might be proposing =) When we got out of the elevator, he led me somewhere and then told me to open my eyes
Set up were 8 white balloons with rose petals. In 7 of them there were also note cards in each of them (the 8th one just had rose petals to set the mood). They were all filled with helium (he bought his own helium tank!!) and the idea was that as I popped each balloon, the rose petals would shower on me and I would read the note from that balloon. Unfortunately, most of the balloons were kind of droopy and taped to the wall/ceiling! =P
– I didn’t find this out till much later but the reason the balloons were droopy was because Ollie had actually blown up some much earlier that day. When he told me he couldn’t meet me at my house because he had to do an errand for his brother, it was actually because he was already at Paramount Hotel trying to scout for a location to propose. He prepped some of the balloons (and actually partially filled some with helium) and left all of it in the car. Then, when we were having tea after the musical and he had a “stomach ache” he actually got all of it from his car (since it was in the parking lot next to the hotel!) and went to the location he had scouted for earlier and quickly set everything up. Since the balloons are made of latex and have items in them, after 5 hours they became droopy!
There was ONE balloon though, that was how it was supposed to be (not droopy) haha so I did get to experience what each one was supposed to be like =) Each of the note cards had a long paragraph of different things he likes about me. I am SUCH a words person and so I LOVEDDD IT!!! =D
aftermath. I was so excited I forgot to take pictures except after I popped all the balloons! After I read all the letters, (he was already down on his knees…or knee?) he said some things and then proposed =) of course I said “YES!!”
He then told me we had 7pm dinner reservations. We went to his car (which was in the parking lot right next to the hotel so we weren’t in the cold for very long yay!) and started driving. However we hit a lot of traffic on the way (boo to NYC driving). Secretly I was wondering if this dinner was really with all of our friends even though he said it was just the two of us.
It was around 7:20PM when he decided to call the restaurant and see if they would hold our table since we were running late and it’s a very popular restaurant and hard to get seats. As I listened to his end of the convo, I couldn’t tell if they were willing to hold our table or not. After the phone call ended, Ollie told me that the guy gave him a really hard time about being late for our reservation but that they would try and hold the table for us. If not, 2 people should not be too hard to seat quickly.
A couple of thoughts ran through my head: one – dinner was definitely just the two of us and not with our friends – kind of sad about that but maybe we would be eating dessert with them after?, two – would we be able to eat soon because I was really hungry! lol, three – I could understand why the restaurant might be frustrated that we were so late and perhaps I would try to be really really nice when we get there so that they don’t spit in our food!
We finally get the the restaurant and I get to see where we are eating! Waterzooi
When we get inside, I’m kind of confused since there is no greeter in the front. We didn’t realize we actually walked in from the back entrance. As we walk around the restaurant trying to figure out who to talk to, we run into a waiter and Ollie asks them for the reservation for “Peng”. She says “Peng? Oh large party?” haha so she kind of gave it away that all our friends were there! But two seconds later, I saw Gary’s head anyways! hahaha
that was the back entrance we came in through
It turns out that the phone call Ollie made to the “restaurant” about our reservation was actually to Peter Liu letting our friends know that we were almost there!!!!
The food was amazing =) Thank you to everyone for coming out and celebrating with us!!! =D
After we left the dinner, we drove to my house but on the way he realized he forgot to get his memory card back from Peter so he called to ask if Peter could give it to him the next day. When we got to my house, my whole family was waiting for us to congratulate us and celebrate. My mom said she had Entenmann’s Apple Pie for us. But it turned out she really had Coldstone cake for us!! (my favorite one – Strawberry Passion). It turns out that Ollie’s phone call to Peter about the memory card was really to my sister to tell her we were on our way to my house!! Then we celebrated with Ollie’s parents with my other favorite cake Strawberry Shortcake =)
ahh and now we are engaged!!! 
I seriously have the best fiancé ever!!! THANKS OLLIE!!!!! <3
Step 2: Do my own interpretation of it and match the lighting/shadows (thank goodness for a talented professional photographer boyfriend! 
Step 3: My charcoal drawing!
