{"id":467,"date":"2012-01-02T21:03:38","date_gmt":"2012-01-02T21:03:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/blog\/?p=467"},"modified":"2012-01-02T21:03:38","modified_gmt":"2012-01-02T21:03:38","slug":"best-week-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/index.php\/2012\/01\/02\/best-week-ever\/","title":{"rendered":"Best Week Ever"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"On Christmas Day Jaime opened up her main gift from me, and I had taken a sizable risk picking out a handbag!\u00a0 Well I was only too pleased to see that she actually liked it and wasn\u2019t going to return it!\u00a0 This was fortunate for me because inside the bag were two more gifts.\u00a0 One was a note that we would be staying overnight in the city at Ink48, a swanky Kimpton Hotel on the Hudson River, and the other was a note that we would be visiting the Build-A-Bear on 5th Avenue the next morning to build each other bears, something she\u2019d been wanting to do for some time.\u00a0 The night of our hotel stay we already knew we were going into the city to see a Broadway show because for Christmas I\u2019d given my sister and her husband tickets and for my parents\u2019 anniversary four days earlier, I\u2019d done the same.\u00a0 Jaime\u2019s parents were joining us too, but this group outing was still not all that out of character for us.\u00a0 So because we knew we were already headed into the city, this plan virtually hid in plain view \u2013 no lies whatsoever.\u00a0 Just a little bit of truth remained concealed.\u00a0 Jaime thought it was sweet we\u2019d stay overnight, but she had no idea what more was coming.\u00a0On the afternoon of December 28th<\/sup> we suffered tremendous traffic en route from central Long Island into the city.\u00a0 But no fear, the less time we spent in the hotel before the show, the better.\u00a0 We checked into Ink48, basically dropped our bags in the room, noted the breathtaking view from the seventeenth floor.\u00a0 Before we knew it, we were heading over to dinner to meet up with her parents, my parents, and my sister and her husband.\u00a0 It was incredibly brisk out by the river and I was only wondering if there would be an issue when I would later suggest we also walk back.\u00a0 It would be serious complication if Jaime suggested either of our parents drop us off at the hotel.\u00a0 Nevertheless, I would roll with any punches.<\/p>\n

The eight of us enjoyed dinner and a very fine show, a rather long show, and then the plan afterward was that Jaime and I would walk back to our hotel while everyone else would be driving to their respective homes.<\/p>\n

Or so she thought\u2026<\/p>\n

Little did she know, that they too were headed to the hotel and were going to be staked out in the lounge.\u00a0 The brisk walk back was far warmer than I anticipated, but perhaps that\u2019s because I knew what would soon be in store for us.\u00a0 And the truth was, I still wasn\u2019t nervous.\u00a0 Jaime and I headed back up to the 17th floor where our room was but instead of turning right at the end of the hall into room 1702, I turned left at the end of the hall into room 1701.\u00a0 The difference was about four feet.\u00a0 But seriously, who pays attention to which direction you turned at the end of the hall?\u00a0 For the time we\u2019d spent her earlier, Jaime sure hadn\u2019t.\u00a0 Per our long-thought-out plan, the front desk had made two keys for me, one for our \u201cstaging room\u201d and one for the \u201cHeaven Over Hells Kitchen\u201d suite across the hall.\u00a0 This suite was two stories, 1,100sf, and had a 2,500sf patio overlooking the Hudson River and the incomparable NY city skyline.\u00a0 Once inside the suite Jaime would hear a special song playing over the sound system of the room \u2013 Jack Johnson\u2019s \u201cUpside Down\u201d \u2013 which has been a song of importance to us for a while.\u00a0 And staring at her straight ahead was a highboy with two Godiva chocolate covered strawberries, a dozen long stem red roses, and a bottle of champagne on ice.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t yet clear to Jaime how we even got in this room let alone what was about to happen.\u00a0 She thought we had entered some type of lounge.<\/p>\n

At this moment, I instructed her to shed her jacket and toss it onto the floor.\u00a0 It might be now when Jaime realized that something was most assuredly up.\u00a0 I gave my short but sweet three line schpiel, got down on one knee, and presented to her the ring which had been burning a hole in my pocket all night and in our apartment all week.<\/p>\n

Yes!<\/p>\n

Once the sheen of the moment had come down just a bit, I instructed her to quickly call her mother, though in her head she was quite sure her mother already knew.\u00a0 Her mother pretended she was already in the Queens-Midtown tunnel but in reality, Jaime\u2019s parents, my parents, my sister and her husband plus Jaime\u2019s brother and his wife, her brother\u2019s best friend, and Jaime\u2019s two best friends and one boyfriend were headed up to the suite to celebrate with us.\u00a0 There was another tray of champagne glasses and strawberries off to the side and Jaime\u2019s mother gave a memorable champagne toast.<\/p>\n

It was an hour or so of incredible rejoicing.<\/p>\n

I must note that my having worked nearly fourteen years in the hospitality industry was a huge reason why this night went off without a hitch.\u00a0 I had the experience for one, but I also had the contacts.\u00a0 Ink48 knocked this one out of the park.\u00a0 I came up with a plan and they were with me every single step of the way.\u00a0 Both my catering manager and concierge were on point and helped fill in the gaps in my plan when there were any.\u00a0\u00a0 Jaime was surprised around every corner, not because this gesture was out of character for me \u2013 the contrary actually.\u00a0 Because she knew of my affinity for large scale, hospitality centered moments, this plan looked like one I would have come up with even if it didn\u2019t result in my slipping a ring on her finger.\u00a0 That worked to my advantage because Jaime could be in on almost every facet of the plan with it still being a complete surprise in the end.<\/p>\n

This night will never be forgotten and it concluded for me, the Best Week Ever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Christmas Day Jaime opened up her main gift from me, and I had taken a sizable risk picking out a handbag!\u00a0 Well I was only too pleased to see that she actually liked it and wasn\u2019t going to return it!\u00a0 This was fortunate for me because inside the bag were two more gifts.\u00a0 One […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nBest Week Ever - hotel-lobbyists.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/index.php\/2012\/01\/02\/best-week-ever\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Best Week Ever - hotel-lobbyists.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On Christmas Day Jaime opened up her main gift from me, and I had taken a sizable risk picking out a handbag!\u00a0 Well I was only too pleased to see that she actually liked it and wasn\u2019t going to return it!\u00a0 This was fortunate for me because inside the bag were two more gifts.\u00a0 One […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/index.php\/2012\/01\/02\/best-week-ever\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"hotel-lobbyists.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-01-02T21:03:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/hl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/DSCN6494-300x225.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Administrator\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Administrator\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/index.php\/2012\/01\/02\/best-week-ever\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/index.php\/2012\/01\/02\/best-week-ever\/\",\"name\":\"Best Week Ever - 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