Tzippora Weinreb & David Wallach
ALERT [1/3/03]: OnlySimchas is down ... click here for our engagement guestbook.
Engagement Information Page
The YUCS admins ought to be shot! The hard drive on the server recently failed, and all data was lost. They did have a back-up, FROM MAY!!! Anyways, if you have a more recent copy of this file (tz.html) or the wedding page (wed.html) on your computer (check your browser's cache), I'd love it it you would send it to me! Thanks!
FYI, we are registered at: Fortunoff, Macy's, and Bed, Bath, & Beyond.
*Jay J, a member of the foil squad on the Men's Fencing team, takes credit for organizing the co-ed practices. At Mac Madness (a YU rally to promote interest in the sports teams), he apparently suggested to the Women's team that they might want to come join us for practice. While one or more members of their team errupted in anger at the suggestion, others (including Tzippora) voiced a different opinion, and the handful of them showed up for practice the following Monday.
Well, not immediately at least. She claims she wasn't there, I think she was just afraid of the mysterious person attempting to communicate with her. (I'm still trying to lose the nickname "Stalker".) Anyways, she finally decided to respond, but by then I was gone. Finally, when I returned, she and I were both online at the same time, and we talked for just long enough for me to verify that she was indeed the right person, at which point I called her in her dorm. She was a little scared when she answered the phone, but soon realized it was I, and we talked for a little while. We also IMed until around 3 a.m. of what was then December 20.
As I'm sure you've guessed by now, things went smoothly. I went home for winter vacation to Palo Alto, CA, spent lots of time on the phone and online, and enjoyed the free transportation to and from the airport, courtesy of Tzippora. I returned at the end of vacation, as Tzippora began to adjust to living at home again. She continued to come to fencing practice on Monday nights, we began to go out regularly (Thursday nights, some Saturday nights). Shortly thereafter I met her parents, then Tzippora came to my brother and sister-in-law's house for Shabbos. I went to her house for the next Shabbos, and the pattern continued.
Earlier in the year, Tzippora had been planning on going to Brazil to spend Pesach with a friend of hers. As our relationship became more serious, we both realized that her disappearing for two weeks would be difficult for both of us, and she soon called her friend to cancel, and we booked two tickets to California.
My parents, ever anxious to meet the girl about whom I talked so much, considered coming to New York mere weeks before our scheduled trip to California for Pesach, but the plans never materialized. However, on April 5, we landed in SFO, and Tzippora instantly met my parents.
Tzippora had big hopes for lots of touring, but between Chag and other restrictions on time (such as a bout with the 24-hour-flu), we only had 3 days of reasonable site-seeing, the pictures of which (only some as of 4/22/01) can be seen on OnlySimchas. I am scanning (thanks to Shaya for use of the scanner) and uploading the pictures as they are developed.
It was around this time that Tzippora's friends, in particular the ones at her place of employment, Ohel, starting making bets as to when the question would be popped. Some of the earlier suggestions were California, or the flight back to New York. The suspense built when she returned to work after our trip to California with no new news!
Anyways, upon reaching her house, I finally let her see them. As she flipped through the pictures, she discovered upon the last of the pictures a post-it with a URL (web address) of a webpage I had prepared (if you'd like to see it, click here).
By now, I assume you've looked at the webpage, if not, go)! Anyways, in case you couldn't see it (or didn't because you're lazy), the "yes" choice was large, in purple (Tzippora's favorite color), and a tiny itsy bitsy "no" in pink (Tzippora's least favorite color). Of course by virtue of the fact that you're looking at this webpage, she said yes, which brings up a fake OnlySimchas webpage, featuring us. Of course, at this point you can find us at the real OnlySimchas site.
So after clicking on the "YES!!!" link, being amused by the fake OnlySimchas site, and saying "YES!!!" aloud, Tzippora was curious as to what would have happened if she clicked no. I suggested she click the link and find out, which she did, only to be further amused by the simulated error page.
Next it was time to get down to business ... the whole world had to know. As you may have guessed, I had told no one (and I mean not a single soul) in advance. Therefore, while many people knew we were going out seriously, no one knew we were getting engaged that night. The Weinrebs have two phone lines, plus two cell phones, and all four were busy for the next several hours. Every now and then I thought of people to call, such as my parents, brother, roommate, cousin, etc., but that's about all. I think I made no more than 5 or 6 calls that night, though I did later go online, and any of my friends who were online were able to share in the joyous news.
But back to the calls. Of the fairly few calls that I actually made, the most interesting was to my roommate, Daniel (AKA Lippy). It went something like the following:
Lippy: Hello?
Me: Hey, Lippy!
Lippy: Who is this?
Me: David. You know, your roommate. Did I wake you?
Lippy: Oh, no, I wasn't sleeping. What's up?
Me: I just wanted to let you know that I got engaged tonight.
Lippy: Wait, David ... David Wallach?
Me: Yeah, you know, your roommate.
Lippy: Oh! Wow! Mazel Tov!
Me: Anyways, that's all, just wanted to let you know.
Lippy: Wow! Wallach? Wow! I'm really happy for you! Can Netanya
[Lippy's girlfriend] come to the wedding?
Me: Only if you two are engaged.
Lippy: OK, good night.
Me: Good night.
Anyways, Lippy went on to do some great stuff that night. First of all, he posted a nice sign and pen on our door, so my friends could leave me/us written wishes of Mazel Tov. Further, he added the URL for this webpage to the poster, and dedicated a whole pad of post-it notes to the webpage, upon which he wrote the URL by hand on each, so that visitors to our famous door could walk away with the information needed for some quality reading material for that, or any, evening. And best of all, he puts up with me.
Further niceties were performed by Ami, who seems to have communicated to the rest of the world (i.e. those not informed by the mass Weinreb calling action) the news of my engagement. Seeing how I was too lazy to do it myself, I am temporarily indebted to Ami.
Some of the Hillcrest community decided to spontaneously arrive at the Weinreb household, where some Champagne was popped and a mini-celebration commenced. A friend of mine, Phil, heard the news later that night, and decided to stop by around 1:30 am.
The first place we visited was Nally, which had some very nice stuff, they were just very overpriced, and didn't seem particularly interested in helping us. However, once we nagged them enough, they put up with us, and showed us what we wanted to see, including a ring that is the basis for what Tzippora seems to be leaning towards.
Second, we stopped at an elderly man's booth, where he proceeded to determine the ballpark I was looking to spend. He started by showing us a couple rings in the $15,000 range, a bit more than I was planning on spending. He then asked me what I was planning on spending, and seemed to be convinced that I was suggesting the $500 ballpark. Finally he understood, and brought a couple rings for us to see from an undisclosed location a few minutes away, which of stones and flavors of metal we weren't interested in. He went back for a second round or rings, this time planning to return with an emerald or two. Instead, he had a princess diamond, which he tried to convince us was emerald. After a two minute arguement about diamonds, we left, all three of us thoroughly frustrated.
The third location that we spent time at seriously browsing was I.D. Jewelry. A nice frum family run booth, they were very helpful and understanding. They spent a lot of time with us, quoting us precise prices, and promising to be able to produce whatever we could want. However, when we decided we had seen enough (we had no plans to actually buy on Friday), they were a little upset, but we all lived through the experience, and the merchant even gave me a written quote.
On the topic of painful diamond experiences, I must mentions Fortunoff. A very large store, non-existant in California, at least in my area, was far less than helpful. We once went by a Fortunoff establishment to look, and found the sales personnel to be very unfriendly, and they wouldn't give us the time of day.
At any rate, for
those of you interested, no, we don't have a ring just yet, but we're
working on it. I have a few "friends in the business," and I'm going to
try to make sure I get a good deal. The picture to the left represents
something along the lines of what we're looking for.
Now back to Shabbos. We spent Shabbos in Hillcrest, whereupon we were announced in shul, recognized by the Rabbi, and I was "permitted" (read: forced by the Gabbai) to read the Haftorah. No elaboration needed.
Well, no elaboration should be needed. But some people need some help with their imagination. Here goes ... imagine this: I've done one Haftorah in my life - my Bar Mitzvah Haftorah. I've done it a few times, but no other. If that's not enough to get your imagination going, I don't know what is.
Red Hat Linux release 7.0 (Guinness)
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login: dwallach
Password:
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* Welcome to yucs.mc.yu.edu *
* Mazel Tov to Sara Ginsberg and Shmuel Popper on their engagement.
* Mazel Tov to David Wallach on his engagement to Tzippora
Weinreb.
[dwallach@yucs dwallach]$
Many of my friends stopped by, ran into me, or IM'd to wish me Mazel Tov and Congratulations. The sign Lippy made is filling up, and my work on this page is making it into something of substance. Tzippora's seminary in Israel, BTI (Sharfman), posted our engagement here. My yeshiva, YSMZ (Yeshivat Sha'arei Mevaseret Zion), doesn't have its own webpage, but does send out a weekly Dvar Torah via email which I may be listed on someday soon.
{snip}
**We also want to pass on the news, already well known here in Palo
Alto,
that David Wallach is now engaged to Tzipporah Weinreb of Hillcrest,
Queens.
They plan a wedding in mid-August in New York.
{snip}
For those wondering what the heck is happening with the whole ring thing, you'll be happy to know that I stopped by Key Food (a supermarket), dropped a quarter in one of those nice vending machines, and out popped one of the nicest rings you could imagine (for that price, at any rate).
I hope you didn't believe anything you read in the previous paragraph, because to my knowledge, none of it was true. At any rate, I finally heard back from my "friend in the business," and he didn't seem to have any super deals better than I seemed to be able to get in the diamond district. Another guy "in the business" was recommended to me, so I went to talk with him, and after spending quite a bit of time with him on Friday, May 18th, I selected a rock, and we're working on getting the rest of the ring together. The plan is to get it in time for the party* on Thursday, but it is not clear whether that will work out for sure.
*If you don't know what party I'm talking about, either I don't know you from a hole in the wall or I accidentally (or purposefully ... j/k) forgot to invite you. Send me an email, and I'll send you the info.
Tonight is the Vort, engagement party, open house, etc. Call it what you may, it's all the same - A present gathering event! No seriously, it's a time when you get to hang out with a big broad (fake) smile all night and shake hands with tons of people you've never (to your knowledge) seen before, listen as they tell you some useless information, then quickly forget their names and faces. Now, for those of you wondering, no it wasn't really that bad, and yes, we did enjoy ourselves, and yes, there were guests from "my" side whom I knew. Speaking of which, thanks to all my friends and family who were able to make it. The rest of you can go to heck!!!
For those of you following the whole ring saga, you should by now know that the idea was to have the ring in time for the engagement party (today). The astute members of the reading population will have realized that the lack of mentioning of the general topic of the ring in the description of the party above is indicative of a negative turnout. And indeed, in some ways you are right. More specifically, when the party began, I neither had the ring nor knew if I would by the end of the party. However, during the party, the "friend in the business" whom I had chosen to give the business arrived (he's a family friend of the Weinrebs), and at some point mentioned that he had it with him. We went off to discuss and work out the final details (well most of them anyways). I wrote him a check, and we were done. The ring was mine. In the box, was something more expensive than anything I had ever bought in my life, and I was about to give it away. Well, not so fast! I had to enjoy the pleasure of ownership for just a little while, so I went back to the party, and continued to shmooze with the guests, making no mention to Tzippora about the transaction that had just taken place. After a few minutes of allowing the ring to rest in my pocket, I asked Tzippora to come with me.
We disappeared from the party, headed upstairs, and I rambled along for a few minutes before reaching into my pocket, and taking out the ring (in the box of course), then handed it to her. She opened it, realized that it was nothing like what she wanted, yelled at me, and finally stormed off in a fit. No, seriously, of course I got just what she wanted (and as soon as the pictures are developed, you'll see a picture of it here), and she loved it! She immediately rushed downstairs, began showing it to anyone who was in her path, until I suggested that maybe she should show it to her mother, among others.
After the party, Tzippora and I stayed up a while opening all of our presents (which means we now have a whole pile of thank-you's to write), then I took their van back to my brother's for the night, because tommorrow is . . .
After a quick stop in Hillcrest to pick up Tzippora, we were on our way to Danny's for shabbos, where we would also be dropping off my stuff. After doing so we learned that there was another moving job to take place in order to clear up storage space in Danny's basement. Needless to say, it was a long day.
Now as I'm sure you've heard, "imitation is the greatest form of flattery." If there is any truth to the cliche, then I suppose I should be flattered. Already imitation proposal pages (well, one that I know of) have popped up.
That's right. At some point in the morning, I rolled over, realized I was backwards in bed, decided to stay that way to ease waking later, but I was curious as to just how much time was left, checked the clock, and it read 9:01. 9:01!!! Holy Smokes! I jumped out of bed, double checked the train schedule, realized I was hosed, and tried to think of some sort of solution really quick. The best I could come up with was honesty, relatively speaking. I called up the person with whom I was to be interviewing, asked if he would mind switching the interview to 11. To my surprise, he said, "No problem," and with that simple phrase, my problem was solved. I still had to rush to get myself together and out the door, but I managed, and arrived on location at about 10:45. True, I never mentioned the reason for my desire to reschedule, but was there any deep down need to?
The interview went well, the only problem really being that it is a city job, and therefore they have to follow official procedure, and therefore I will not hear from them for ages. If possible, they may be slower than NB (see above).
Tzippora and I also headed over to the Office of the Town Clerk, Daniel M. Fisher, Jr. of Hempstead, NY. We did this in order to purchase our marriage license, which will be completed on the day of our wedding. An interesting tidbit for those of you out there getting married soon, if you apply in New York City, they charge $5 more than elsewhere in the state, and either way, your licesnse is good for use anywhere in New York State.
Mazal Tov to David Wallach on his recent engagement. May he and his Kalla be zoche to build a bayit ne'eman b"YisraelCongratulations to the Mevaseret Staff! It only took you guys 3 months to figure out that I was engaged and then send out the information to the list! Yay! However, at the same time, I am sorry to announce that for some unknown reason, we seem to have fallen off the JemSem list. I have written to them, and we should be back shortly, I hope.
On a separate topic, I went back to the Lower East side to continue pursuing a Tallis or two, this time with FIL (father-in-law).
- Tzippora Weinreb of Hillcrest, NY to David Wallach of Palo Alto, CA (BTI 5758, balthazar7@aol.com)
The length of this page is getting, well, long, and therefore I
will be limiting the addition of new news to exciting new news.
(to be continued...)
The official continuation of this page can be found here at the Wedding Information Page.
Please feel free to send us comments.
Tzippora's mother was worried that if Tzippora joined the Stern Fencing team, it would ruin possible shiduchim. Tzippora and I met via fencing...?
At YU, students are required to take two semesters of PE. During my freshman year, I took one semester of Karate. In Israel I signed up for the fencing class, to complete my PE requirement. On the first day of class, we were offered the opportunity to switch to the team. Had I not chosen to do so, I would have completed my PE requirement, and would not have been on the team this year...?
