I arrived at the Civic Courts building at 8:00 a.m., where I was herded into a large room and given a badge. As Juror #289, I sat in my chair and waited for an hour while they got organized. During that hour, the government workers occasionally called people up to the front desk, and I thought it was going to be a busy and interesting day. Boy was I wrong! I made myself comfortable in my chair and tried to read my book. But between the TV that was spewing its inane daytime programming, the man sitting behind me who fell asleep and snored for hours on end, and the fact that my chair did super-human feats in making my buttocks numb, I found myself lacking the attention I required to get into my book. It felt like I was on a really long flight, or a bus or train that didn't end up taking me anywhere. Plus, the front desk workers stopped talking at 9:00 and didn't address us until 11:30, when they dismissed us for an almost-two-hour lunch.
When I got back in my seat by 1:15, I thought that surely something would happen. I was again disappointed. The front desk workers didn't address us until 3:30, when they finally called a jury pool of about 30 people. I sat in my seat, my little heart pumping, feeling a bit like an 8-year-old hoping to be picked for the dodge ball team during P.E. I was so hoping to be picked. I wanted to see what the court process was like. But mostly, I wanted something to end the maddening boredom that was the waiting room. My number was not called. And The Chosen Thirty received their assignment to return for court the next day at 9:00, and then they were released!
And the front desk workers, again, said nothing to the rest of us.
Just when I thought we might just end up living and dying in that soul-sucking waiting room, Heavenly Angels came down from above, in the form of a front-desk worker, and told us that we were released to go home at 4:00. And that we don't have to return tomorrow!
Hoorah! I have fulfilled my service to the court system for now. I think that as long as I will myself to think of it as SERVICE, I won't feel like it was the biggest, fattest waste of a day in my entire life. But since I haven't yet convinced myself that I did any sort of service at all, I currently do think that it was the absolute biggest, fattest waste of a day. My Jury Duty Experience= Not interesting or fulfilling in any way, shape or form.
But Thank You to my awesome friend, Angela, who took care of Gunner for me All Day Long. You are a Super Goddess Mommy!
5 comments:
You should not tell lies about the waiting room for a court of law. You had a very productive day. You learned who the hosts were of several daytime programs. You got to practice lip reading since you couldn't hear the TV. You got to ponder the morals of soap stars. Do you do ANY of those things in the carefree easy bliss that is caring for a toddler while your husband works overtime? No. Chalk this up to being your most productive day all year.
Waste? certainly not. Had you been in the courthouse before? Well, that was a new experience. Had you ever eaten at that lunch spot before? another new experience. See, lots of new things. I was on jury duty for a MONTH in Los Angeles. Yes, I was on several juries, but a month is long time for boring days.
That sounds familiar. Matt was called for jury duty last month, and his schedule was about the same as yours. As if they were going to choose him, anyway! I hope that I never get the "honor" of being chosen for jury duty...
Yeah I had the pleasure of fulfilling my duty a couple years ago- same experience of waiting except I got chosen right at the very end of the day for jury. I got to come back again the next day for a somewhat interesting case of drug possesion that thankfully took only 1 day. And seriously what is up with the 9-4 day with a 2 HOUR lunch break!?
Uggh, what a day. But you did get some alone time, which I'm sure is a rarity for you right now.
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