Mazel Toy!

A feu!
e-mail
chats led to
something
more.

Click e d'

CARL WALDMAN
Special to the Jewish News

ever let it be said that dat-
ing services don't work,"
says Carrie Waldorf

Signing up for a Jewish online ser-
vice in the fall of 1998 — Jdate.com
— Waldorf filled out her profile. She
wrote that she was was looking for a
male who was a single, non-
smoking,

Carrie Waldolf and Andrew Bank

Reform or Conservative Jew, in either
the (734), (248), (810) or (313) area
codes.
Living at the time with her parents
Richard and Alana in West
Bloomfield, responses came fUll blast
to her computer. But "five or so date's
later, I was ready to call the whole
blind dating thing off," says Carrie,
now 26 and an accounting and
human resource executive for
Diamond Bullet, a Web design corn-
any in Ann Arbor.
"The so-called perfect matches
t up by the computer were virtu-
ly a nightmare" she says. Yet
en she received an unfamiliar
,oponse from the (734) area
de with a screen name
drew, her attention was
'clued. "His email was ener-
getic, fun-loving and intelli-
ent," Waldorf says. Browsing
is profile, Waldorf liked the
t that her new chat buddy,
Andrew Bank, was
depicted as
adventurous
and highly
nergized.
ith no
c-
•es

posted for either of them, they com-
municated via computer.
"When you sign up for JDate,"
says Andrew, "you get five free tokens.
They enable you to confidentially
write to five people for free in the dat-
ing service: Carrie was one of the five
girls I contacted. One reason was
because I noticed in her profile that
she was a snowboarder, and I wanted
to find a girl I could enjoy outdoor
sports with."
Andrew, originally from Flint, is now
28 and vice president of business devel-
opment for Techstreet, an online techni-
cal information service in Ann Arbor.
Andrew asked Carrie to meet him
after a few chats, but Waldorf turned
him down. "I've had it with blind
dates," she said. But after a two-hour
telephone conversation, where they
talked about their commitments to
family, work and sports, Carrie
changed her mind. They made a date,
the first Bank had ever made from an
online Jewish- singles network.
They exchanged pictures in
advance, and clicked in person as well
as they had on the computer.
Last May, Carrie became an adult
bat mitzvah at Temple Israel in West
Bloomfield. After the service, the fam-
ily had a dinner party for 40 friends at
a West Bloomfield restaurant Special
guests included Bank's mother, Emily,
who lives in Flint.
Carrie presented a slide show at the
dinner showing a picture of each
guest. After her presentation, Andrew
said, "Scoot over, it's my turn."
Clicking on the slide_ projector, which
he had secretly rigged in advance with
the help of Carrie's father, up popped
a picture of an engagement ring. Then
Andrew professed his undying love in
a speech before the 40 guests, and on
bended knee proposed marriage and
offered Carrie a real engagement ring.
"The funniest part of the story,"
says Andrew, "is that when I really got
to know Carrie, I learned. she had
actually snowboarded only once."
Carrie and Andrew now both live
in Ann Arbor, and a wedding at
Temple Israel is planned for June. ❑

2/16
2001'

49

