A great plan gone wrong.

    February 12, 1999.  It was the Friday of Valentine's Day weekend (V-day being Sunday).  I had convinced Margaret that we were attending a special Valentine's Ball at New York's snooty University Club.  This story's purpose was so that Margaret would bring in her evening gown to work so that we could be dressed to the nines for the evenings festivities.  We both left for work that morning and parted company at Port Authority Bus Terminal for our respective paths to our offices.  This morning, however, I made a U-turn as soon as Margaret was out of sight and headed back to Hoboken to collect our belongings for the weekend.  Arriving at work a little later, it was time to set things in motion.

    This was the plan.  Earlier that week I had created a mock ransom note to send to Margaret with detailed instructions on how, when, and where to meet me, no questions asked.  "Where" was the top of the Empire State Building, which I had scouted out earlier in the week and bought an extra ticket to enclose with the note.  According to my detailed note, Margaret was to be dressed and ready to leave work at 4pm when she was to meet the limousine I had waiting for her in front of her office.  The limo would take her to the Empire State Building, where she would use the ticket to meet me on top.  I would be anxiously awaiting her arrival and propose when she reached the top.  This was the plan.

I dropped off the note and ticket at the message center at Margaret's job with urgent directions and left to get ready.  I went to the hotel room I had reserved for us, donned my tux and found my way to the 86th floor of the Empire State Building where I waited.  And waited.  And waited.

Margaret never got the note.

Margaret was getting back from a meeting at 4:30, a half hour after she was supposed to have left to meet me.  The three voicemails she had waiting for her were from the limo driver waiting downstairs. He called again and Margaret thought he had the wrong number and hung up on him.  Luckily, he called right back and told her, "This is big Al waiting for you downstairs in a big white limo.  Rick Kalaher is waiting for you on top of the Empire State Building!"  No doubt panic stricken, Margaret rushed to get ready with the help of some of her co-workers.

Meanwhile, there I was pacing the observation deck of King Kong's jungle gym.  Lucky for me, that February day was unseasonably warm and I kept vigil looking for the white limo on the city streets from my very elevated vantage point.  5:30 came and went, with no sign of Margaret.  I was beyond pacing and was starting to think of how I could scale the protective fence if Margaret never showed up.  My mind was racing when all of a sudden my cell phone rang.  It was the limo dispatcher calling to say that Margaret was on her way.  I was relieved, but wondered what could have gone wrong.  Twenty minutes later Margaret reached the top of the Empire State Building.

I spotted Margaret making her way through the crowd of tourists on the observation deck, and noticed her glaring eyes.  She quickly walked over to me and in her flustered state asked what the heck was going on.  I explained that I had a very important question to ask her.  Margaret sensed what was coming and as she visibly became more anxious, she started to whisper, "No, no...".

The tourists that were eavesdropping on our intimate moment, started to become nervous themselves, thinking that Margaret was turning me down.  What they didn't realize was that she was completely stressed out, and in her panic was saying, "No, I hate the Empire State Building!"  I hugged her as tight as I could; half to calm her down, half out of fear that she would run away!  Holding her tight, I whispered in her ear my intentions and prayed for the right answer.

"Yes!" is all I can remember her saying.  I put the ring on her finger and took my first breath in what seemed like hours.  I kissed my new fiancé and whisked her away to begin our enchanted evening.  We wined and dined and danced away the weekend, and celebrated a very special Valentines day as an engaged couple.

Epilogue:    When we went back to work that week, Margaret got the note.