The Date 12/7/2007 1:30pm

The Place The woods behind St. John Church and Cold Spring Harbor Fish Hatchery

The Setup

It was right after Thanksgiving, Jeannie and I went to the mall with my sister Michelle. On the way to pick up Michelle, Jeannie and I were talking about our friends wedding we had been to a few days earlier. We decided it might be fun to just browse engagement rings. Neither one of us really thought seriously about it. While we were at the Mall and Jeannie and Michelle were pointing out rings, I could see how excited Jeannie was about one ring in particular. I decided to myself that it was time to really put an engagement in motion. The scariest part was asking Jeannie's Dad Pete permission. I really thought he was going to say No! But, obviously he didn't and he gave me his blessing. To set up the engagement I had to find a tree off the path of a nature trail that Jeannie and I carved our names into almost four years ago and haven't been to since. After a long walk in the cold I found the tree and started carving the words "will you marry me" into the tree with a key. While carving the tree it started snowing, and it took me almost twenty minutes to carve the words so they were nice looking and visible.

• The Ring •

Two days after carving the tree I asked Jeannie if she would go somewhere with me. She asked where we were going, and I said it's kind of a surprise. I also told her that she couldn't see where we were going and that she would have to be blind folded for the trip. She seemed more apprehensive than excited. I assured her she would be happy when we got there because I think she was getting worried that I was going to murder her. So, she went along with the whole blind fold thing which made me happy because my plan was falling into place perfectly. My plan was almost ruined because on the way to the tree I was speeding on the parkway because I was so excited, when I looked in the rear view mirror I saw two state troopers speed up behind me. I screamed, "oh shit there's two state troopers behind me!!!!" Jeannie was like, "what!!?" She started to take off the blind fold. I yelled, "Don't you dare take that off until I know for sure we're getting pulled over!" The cops passed me so I was relieved. When we arrived at the trail I walked Jeannie blind folded to the tree. She was scared because she couldn't see and I said don't worry just trust me. We finally got to the tree...I stood her facing the tree and I stood behind her and took off the blind fold. When she read the words on the tree and turned around with tears in her eyes and she said yes!! Unfortunately, the ring was supposed to be ready in time for me to bring it on the proposal but when I called to make sure I could pick it up before I took Jeannie to the woods they told me it wouldn't be ready til after three o'clock. I had to go to work that afternoon so I was really upset that I wasn't going to be able to give it her her right away. I drove on my dinner break from Plainview Hospital to the jewelers in Massapequa then to Jeannie's house. She was really surprised to see me because she didn't know I was coming. I got down on one knee and I gave her the ring. We hugged and then I had to run back to work!!!