Mirepoix: Two Year Anniversary and Sushi

   My only reaction to having been married for two years is "holyshitballs." That is what ran through my head when I was awoken by cats scratching at my (slowly being destroyed) bulletin board wall. Our marriage, while wonderful, has been odd. I explained what happened with the whole getting married thing a few days ago. So, right, we got married basically to get more money while he was deployed to Iraq. He left in February and came back in September. I didn't graduate until December. We were married an entire year before we even lived together! Not the way I would have preferred things to happen. But, after graduating, I moved to North Carolina to be with him. I only lived there for 7 1/2 months, but looking back on it, it may not have been the wisest decision to move there. (Apparently, scientific employers think that you forget EVERYTHING and are rendered mentally retarded if you haven't worked in more than 2 months. Yeah... still no job and no hopes of a job in the field I thought I wanted.) Whatever, my domestic side has abducted me and I am perfectly happy spending my days cooking, sewing, cleaning, and trying to figure out kids' names that don't scream Firefly or "beat me up on the playground everyday"! (Although, kids have to be put off for a few more years.) Those 7 months gave me the time to improve my cooking which, honestly, is a more important life skill than being able to properly culture cell lines or perform a perfect ELISA. Also, you can eat and enjoy food.
   I feel a little bad for the timing of everything. Louis really got screwed in this deal, but he happily agreed to everything so I shouldn't feel too bad. My birthday, two anniversaries and Christmas in a less than two week period.... Gift central. As we were waiting for my parents to arrive at the church before the little mini-ceremony, we made an agreement that we would never get each other things for our anniversaries. The only thing we would do to celebrate is get sushi on December 23rd. This year, he broke that agreement by sending me a gorgeous birds of paradise arrangement. But he isn't here for sushi tonight, so I am not upset about the breach. I am upset that he is in Afghanistan, but I, unfortunately, have no control over that. Luckily, one of my best friends in the whole world is in town on winter break from vet school so she is going to eat sushi with me tonight at Miyako! Yay!
   The night we got married was so amazingly low key. Just seven of us. We rode up from the basement to the whatever they call the big main room in a church (can you tell that I don't go to church?) crammed together. That was the longest elevator ride in history, by the way. Literally. It would have been way faster to walk up the one flight of stairs. The whole thing took about 5 minutes and Louis' dad performed the ceremony. Technically, I don't think we even need to go through that formality because I think everything was signed before hand. Then as a starving bunch we raced over to the West End area of Nashville to gorge ourselves at Samurai, a tiny hole in the wall sushi joint. I wish I could remember specifics about the sushi, but I can't. I do remember that everything we had was perfectly fresh and delicious though! (Also, not outrageously expensive like other down town sushi restaurants.) The two of us drove back to Murfreesboro, cleaned up the rabbit poop in my apartment (I had a very large pet rabbit at the time... big mistake), then sat on the floor and ate pints of ice cream. And then... well, you get the picture. It was perfect. So simple, but I won't forget it.