[Dixielandjazz] She said "Yes!"

[Ministry of Jazz]

Shalom jazz fans,

My lady Krina and I are happy to announce that she accepted my proposal of
marriage last night.

I took her to an Asian restaurant in Jerusalem for dinner, where I had
arranged with the waitress to serve us a plate of specially ordered fortune
cookies that contained my proposal in 5 languages that Krina speaks or
reads: Dutch, English, Hebrew, Phoenician and Syriac. Krina didn't suspect a
thing until she opened one of the chocolate cookies and saw her name in
Hebrew on the message slip. She pulled out the fortune to discover that it
went on to say, in Hebrew, "I love you. Will you marry me?" She smiled at me
and said, "Yes." We went on to open several more cookies until we found all
but the English version. Then I gave her the ring.

A little background:

I first met Krina in December 2006 when we both were playing in a concert,
but in separate ensembles. I remember thinking at the time that she had a
dazzling smile and a delightful personality. But for various reasons we did
not get beyond small talk at that time. We met again in early February of
this year when we were randomly seated at the same table at a bar mitzvah.
We began to chat, and quickly realized that we had met at the concert about
a year earlier. A very pleasant conversation ensued, until we noticed that
most of the other guests had left. I offered Krina a ride home, and promptly
neglected to ask her for her phone number. (It was a Shabbat eve and I was
in a hurry to get home and prepare for guests from abroad.)

The following week, I made the (for me) unprecedented move of asking the
mother of the bar mitzvah boy if she would ask Krina if I could call her.
Krina had gone to Holland for a week, but when she returned she responded
promptly in the affirmative, and gave her number. Another lovely phone
conversation resulted in plans to go out to see "The King and I". She
captured my heart on the first date, and we began to see each other more
than once a week, and to talk in between on the phone and by email. We began
to discover a world of common interests including Biblical languages, Jewish
literature and history, the land of Israel, music and more. We also felt an
uncommon level of trust and clean communication was rapidly developing.
After a few weeks we decided to take the step of becoming boyfriend and
girlfriend, and began to see or talk to each other pretty much every day.
And the rest, as they say, is history...

Krina Doekes (pronounce DOOK-ess) is from Apeldorn, Holland. She is 43 years
old, and has been in Israel for 19 years. She has masters degrees in Semitic
Languages and in Library Science (as in the Music Man and Marian the
Librarian -- you gotta love it!), and she is a tour guide. She also sings
and plays classical and medieval music on the recorder. She speaks Hebrew
and English, as well as Dutch. She has a delightful, crazy sense of humor
that meshes nicely with mine.  In short, she is a priceless treasure, and I
am thrilled to be in love with her and her with me, and to be planning to be
together for life.

We are considering possibilities for our wedding in August or September,
before Rosh Hashanah. We will keep you posted as plans develop. We will live
in my apartment in Jerusalem, and we hope to be able to work together at
various endeavors to make our living.

So if you're wondering why I've been so quiet on DJML these last few months,
now you know. We hope to see some of you before the year is over. We will be
traveling to Holland in late summer and the US in October/November. We also
welcome any of you to come visit us over here. Israel is as beautiful as
ever. Don't let the news scare you. You can come here and have a wonderful
time.

Love to everyone,

Elazar
Doctor Jazz Dixieland Band
Tekiya Brass Ensemble
Jerusalem, Israel
www.israel.net/ministry-of-jazz
www.myspace.com/doctorjazzdixielandband
(02) 679-2537
050-723-3914