Chicken Fried Rice-Without the Chicken

I have not had sushi in almost three years. Actually, it would be three years to the day, today! My strike on sushi started as a nice dinner at the local sushi bar. I hadn't been eating sushi long, just a few months, but it was so good, I just couldn't get enough. This day was like no other. I worked my full-time job, went and grabbed some cowboy rolls at the restaurant, and then went and baby sat. I came home that night and my friend was going to stay over because it was still Christmas break and our college down looked like a deserted island. I also had crazy neighbors and didn't like being at the house alone.

I went to bed feeling a little puny. As the night went on my stomach was churning and I ended up having a puke fest in the bathroom. All. Night. Long. I woke my friend up around 3:30am and asked her to take me to the local store to get some medicine. Puke fest at the gas station, a bottle of Pepto, and a few bottles of Powerade and I still had no relief. Yuck! Around 5:00am I called my mom, who lived three hours away, and asked for her input on my how to rid my misery. She told me if the vomiting didn’t stop in about an hour to go to the ER.

As my luck would have it, the puking didn’t end. I woke my friend and begged her to take me to the ER. She got up and got ready for work and drove me to hospital. I had imagined an extra long wait to get a room, but we went right on back. I was hooked up to IV’s and was given the “good drugs” to knock me out. I didn’t care what they gave me, I just wanted relief. As time rolled by, we waited and waited, no results. I was certain I had food poison. Must I remind you of the sushi I had for dinner. Oh yes, my friends, that’s what I had been vomiting all night. I experienced seaweed coming out my nose. NO JOKE! I looked up in the mirror at one point while puking and had a nice green strip of sticky seaweed hanging out. Have I completely grossed you out?

Here I am in the ER and my friend tells me she has to leave to go to work. I figured I’d be there a few more hours so we bid our farewells and she told me to call her when it was time for me to go home. It wasn’t 10 minutes after she left the doctor rolled in and announced the final verdict of my untimely illness.

“Food poisoning from that sushi”, I thought to myself as he was reading through my chart.

“Well Miss. Heard, you’re pregnant”, Mr. Doctor said.

“How is that possible”, I asked?

I will stop this conversation right here, as we all know about the birds and the bees. Here I am, in the ER, alone, pregnant, and my friend can’t come pick me up. Crap. “What to do, what to do” I kept asking myself. I remind you that it is Christmas break still and this little town is empty! I call around and finally get a ride home. “Thank you Jesus”, I thought to myself.

This story right here is why I haven’t eaten sushi in THREE YEARS, until last night. On the eve of me finding out I was pregnant, I get a text from my cousin wanting me to meet her and the family for sushi. Hesitantly, I replied back to the text message with a “sure”. Nervously I walked into the sushi bar and took a seat. Oh the smell. For a moment it smelt wonderful, then I was taken back to that night in my bathroom where I puked for hours. I gave myself a little pep talk and continued to look at the menu.

It was time to order.

"Can I get the Erika #2 (crispy shrimp, mix spicy crab, on top seared beef, special sauce). I also would like an order of the shrimp tempura, a house salad with ginger (my favorite dressing of all time), and a child's chicken fried rice".

"God please let this be good", I kept praying.

YUM! Avery and I shared our salad. The child drank the ginger dressing with a straw and devoured the shrimp tempura. He loved his chicken fried rice, except he would pick through the rice with his chop sticks to find the chicken and put it on my plate. It was too funny! So, three years to the day later, I ate sushi. I. LOVED. IT.