Wednesday, July 15th -- Making sure it's official

Since our wedding on May 30th 2009, we have been worried about whether or not our marriage was official and legal. Even though I gave Sasha the marriage license and even though I know Sasha can really be trusted, I never heard anything about it being sent in. Additionally, my maid of honor Tanya, who I had designated as one of the people I wanted to sign the marriage license as a "witness", mentioned she left the wedding without being asked to sign it.

So on Wednesday, Josh and I were excited that we would finally get a chance to pick up our "Certification of Marriage" from Cook County to make sure it is, in fact, official. Josh picked me up from work and we had a reasonably easy and enjoyable drive on a sunny day out to Rolling Meadows to pick up our certificate.

Something interesting happened after we got through the metal detectors and started heading up the escalator: some emergency lights were flashing in the building. Then, the women who worked in the room where we were heading (the same room where we got our marriage license exactly 3 months earlier) were yelling frantically at everyone to exit the building. So we went right back downstairs and exited as we were told, kind of laughing at the whole thing. We were reasonably certain that no one was targeting a harmless little courthouse in Rolling Meadows. I told Josh I was convinced that the gel packs I had in with my insulin to keep it chilled had set off the alarms.

A few minutes later we were allowed back inside, this time without needing to use the metal detector again. We went to the proper room and paid our $15 in cash, and got our official Proof with no hassle. It turns out the record was filed on June 15th (shortly after our honeymoon), so we could have got our official proof a full month sooner than we did.

After that, we drove to Don's Dock in Des Plaines for dinner. They have an interesting, cluttered decor that I enjoy looking at (including a few references to SpongeBob SquarePants and a Napolean Dynamite sticker with the caption "I caught you a delicious bass.") and good seafood. This is the same place we'd eaten 3 months ago after getting our marriage license. I got fried food once again (Calamari because the name reminds me of Wisconsin Dells' "Kalamari" indoor waterpark), while this time Josh opted for a healthier plate of grilled salmon, rice, and broccoli.

It was a nice evening that kind of felt like a weekend to me, plus it was a significant day in the life of Josh and Carrie. So I felt the need to write about it even though it was a Wednesday evening.