...and they lived happily ever after...

Also, Nick had been asking me on and off for the past five years to marry him, but it's always been taking in jest. Afterall, how seriously can you take someone's offer of marriage after an argument or a threat to leave. But this year, I relented a bit and we were tossing back and forth the idea of marrying on 06-07-08. 6 7 8 ... easy to remember. Also since it was two days after my birthday, I figure kill two birds with one stone. Invite all my family and friends that could make it to some Caribbean location and do a birthday/wedding and I would *still* get the opportunity to lay around on the beach.

Well a couple months back, Nick started to become a bit ambivalent about the entire thing and whenever I mentioned it, he would demure and not say anything. Instead he said let's just go to NY instead and have a party for the birthday. NY is both good and bad for me and the last thing that I wanted was to go there after just being there in April and to deal with the likely June humidity that covers the city.

He kept on insisting, I kept on backing off. Finally at the last minute, I threw my hands up in frustration and just plain... "I GIVE UP." I was such a shit really.

At the very very very last minute, we found an incredible vacation package to the Bahamas after tossing out Puerto Rico because I was afraid of the Puerto Ricans. So, we were to have a party in NYC on Thursday the 5th of June, and leave Saturday the 7th for the Bahamas.

That Wednesday, we landed in NY, tired and well tired. I had planned on going to the mall with my cousin to get some last minute stuff. But instead, my mom had to go to the city for work and I decided to take her. Just so happens that I was driving my cousin's huge Toyota Sequoia, a vehicle that I drove many times before. Once even to and back from Virginia. Well, it didn't take but five minutes to rear end a taxi.

Stressed, my mom angry at me for the damage, my cousin not speaking to me because she was afraid of how to explain this to her parents... we went back later that night to their house where Nick and my other cousin were supposed to have been. When we got there, Nick wasn't around. I asked my cousin where on earth he had gone off to, because I had needed him to look at the damage and see if we can fix it.

My cousin said that his father came home and Nick and he went "somewhere." What I didn't know was that my uncle knew what Nick was up to in asking for my hand in unholy matrimony and decided what time but the present to go find my father ... his brother and ask him. I have not spoken to my father in five years. Even when I went back for my grandfather's funeral, I did not say a single word to him. Apparently, Hennessy is a powerful courage booster and my uncle fed Nick enough to go and speak to the man that he knew, he KNEW that I was going to be upset about. Nevertheless, he asked and my father said that he wished us well.

My father also poured some more Hennessy.

By the time, I'm getting increasingly agitated from not only the accident but also sheer tiredness and frustration that Nick wasn't around. My mom, by that time had to leave to go to her place so my cousin offered to give her a ride. Little did I know that when she was leaving, Nick and my uncle were coming back. Toasted, Nick told my mom where he was and what he was asking and asked the same thing of her.

My mom apparently knew as well. Turns out that I was pretty much the only person that did not know.

So, finally Nick came in, he was blasted out of his mind at this point and I was fuming. But tiredness won that battle and I just told him that let's just call it a night and we'll deal with the vehicle tomorrow. It was midnight by the time we made it to the car for the two minute ride to the hotel, when he said that he wanted to go see his father.

Nick, like me, hadn't spoken to his father in five years either. I was too tired to argue with him and not dumb enough to just give him the car to drive from South Ozone Park to Flushing, drove him in the middle of the night. What followed was so surreal. But I'm digressing. Him and his father made up and are ok again.

That next day, my birthday, was crazy hectic. Running around ... meeting Maggie for pedicures and manicures in the city. Arranging with Nick to get the cake, making sure that everyone knew where the restaurant was... it was crazy.

I'm rushing a bit but that night, the dinner was incredible. The food was great, everyone had a good time. At the end of the night, Nick got up to say a toast and he started off with ... "As you all know, Andrea's a great girl and we've been together for a long time ... " and the rest is a blur. He dropped to one knee, I looked at my Mom, she was tearing up, I'm trying not to do the same. He whipped out the ring and I was just giggling.

By that time, my cousins had flocked over to our table, cameras aimed. Nick was nervous and I don't even know why I said it, but I turned to my cousins and said, "Hmm, I need to ask my lawyers. Lawyers, what do you say?" Everyone laughed and I just grabbed him and kissed him.

And that was that.