We are Getting Married!

Angela and Anthony met on December 19th, 2009 in Queens, New York, during a blizzard.

during a blizzard. Back then, Angela and Anthony’s brother, Jose, worked at a hotel near LaGuardia Airport. That night no one could make it back home, but apparently Anthony was able to manage crossing the RFK Bridge on the only M60 bus available. The plan was for Jose to meet Anthony a block away from the hotel where he worked so that they could head home from there. Unfortunately, there were 20 inches of snow and winds were going 60 MPH, so Jose asked Angela and other co-workers to accompany him on the hotel’s shuttle bus ride a few blocks away from the hotel to pick up his brother in case he got stuck. There was nothing else to do so Angela joined them and sat in front of the shuttle.

Anthony has been waiting a long time for his brother to arrive, his face was all covered up to protect himself from the snow, since the ride took 15 minutes which in reality should have only taken 2 minutes. When Anthony sees the shuttle, he runs like a kangaroo and tries to hop on and sit in the front seat, but then he hears a loud “Hello!!! Can’t you see there’s someone in the front seat, go to the back!” After hearing this, Anthony jumped back, while having a mini heart attack. He had to look up and see the face of the person who had just screamed at him and walk to the back of the shuttle and introduce himself from there. The group then went back to the hotel to find shelter.

Ok… so everyone is stuck and there is no way to get back home and everyone is also hungry. Greatest ideas? Order Domino’s Pizza and try to kill time? Go out and see/play with the snow? Anthony is still recovering from his mini heart attack and trying to figure out if it was safe to engage in a conversation with Angela now..... However, Angela actually didn’t like to speak much, because she was self-conscious about her accent given that it was only a year since she arrived in New York (but Anthony didn’t know this). Regardless, Anthony was very interested in Angela and his only way to make an impression on her at that instant was by pushing her into the snow (really Anthony who does this?). But, Angela (very mature) was like ok, what is wrong with my co-worker’s brother? Rumors are that she confessed years later that she actually liked it.

Anthony and Angela had never shared this with the family, but the very first night they met, they kissed – was it the hunger? Maybe it was the hunger.... because the pizza they ordered more than 2.5 hours ago still had not yet arrived. But as they have told the story to some close friends, they describe this as LOVE at first sight. (How lucky were we…)

Angela feels extremely embarrassed that she kissed a guy who she met on the first night. She wanted earth to swallow her, especially because it was with her co-worker’s brother. The next morning at the hotel where Angela worked as a Front Desk Agent, Anthony called the Front Desk to ask for her number and she said, “Sure.” But, days following that night Anthony showed up for a week at the hotel “to pick his brother up” from work but really it was to have mini conversations with Angela while he waited for his brother. During these mini conversations they spoke about the new movie that everyone was talking about – Avatar. Anthony took this as his chance to ask Angela out.

If you did not realize by the title of this chapter, let me tell you that Angela said Yes!) After they watched Avatar, Angela needed to get back home so when they arrived in front of her house, before she walked out of the car, Anthony grabbed her hands and asked “Do you want to be my girlfriend?” In this moment, Angela’s mind went blank, she checked her cellphone and saw the date, it was December 30th (11 days after they first met). She was not ready for this, but she was thinking about it… Anthony didn’t hear a word coming out of her for what seemed like a whole 24 hours... so he asked again. Before Angela answered, she had questions (typical Angela), and asked “Why? Aren’t we going too fast? We don’t even know each other!” Anthony’s response to her questions was “I don’t know what’s going to happen next, but I like you and I want to be with you” and Angela said Yes and the rest is history!

On December 30, 2017, which was Angela and Anthony’s 7th year anniversary, Anthony decided it was time to take their relationship to the next level and ask Angela to marry him. Anthony was very nervous and changed the plan a few times (I heard). First it was in Central Park, then it was changed to a helicopter ride on top of Manhattan, then the Top of the Rock, eventually he decided to do it at the iconic restaurant – One if by Land, Two if by Sea. As background to show how nervous he was, he told his friend Amar, who was going to take real time pictures at the proposal, to go up to the Top of the Rock instead of the restaurant!.. But, everything ended up working out and when it was time for Anthony to "pop the question", the ring was placed in a bowl of roses on the center of the table… Anthony got on one knee and said: “They say 7 is the number of change and we’ve been together for 7 years, so before we proceed forward I want to make sure I change something. – Angela, will you marry me?”