Not wanting to be late for my first day of Jury Duty I left the house about 40 minutes early. It took me about 7 minutes to get there. 7 minutes. Next I had to find the designated parking spaces which they told us about in the letter they sent with directions. I forgot the letter. After driving around for several minutes I decided to sneak into the YMCA lot and try to look inconspicuous which is hard as my Tahoe looks like a big black tank.
Anywho, with the parking issue taken care of for the moment I walked down to the court house and got into an elevator that could not have been more then 3X5 feet and being rather claustrophobic I prayed that the thing would get to the top floor without breaking down!!! It did. Thankfully.
Now I hate to sit and wait with nothing to do so I came prepared for the waiting which I was sure would ensue. I had my Ipod, all recharged and ready to go. I had a new Taste Of Home Christmas book that had come in the mail the day before. I had a paperback that I grabbed in the airport when I flew to Florida a few months ago and still haven't finished because it is boring but I refuse to give up on it. Now in case I did finish it I threw in another paperback that I picked up by Nicholas Evans, The Divide. I have school clothes that I want to order for T out of my favorite mail order catalog that has lots of horse themed clothes in it so I brought that in case I had time to make out the order blank. CWD Kids. Great children's clothes BTW.
Thinking I may get the clothes ordered I figured I'd better bring a couple magazines that I hadn't read yet so I grabbed Women's Day and TV Guide. Also had received a new Pillsbury cookbook that I get each month so threw that in to see if there were any good casserole recipes. I took my camera just in case there was something I was allowed to photograph like the judge or something. Terry's Village is a funky little catalog with lots of different seasonal items and I thought it would be good to check that out to update my decorations so into the tote that went.
In case the air conditioning was too cold I took a jacket, as if I would ever be cold with these hot flashes. DUH! In case I got hungry I took a little zip-lock bag of sunflower seeds and in case I got thirsty I took a bottle of water. (which I found out you can't drink in front of the judge!) Last but not least I took a note pad to jot down blogging fodder so that I didn't forget it before I got home.
I had all of this stuff in two tote bags and they were heavy. I didn't get a chance to use ANYTHING! NOTHING! There were too many instructions being given out, a video with more instructions to watch, questions and more questions from the judge concerning our appropriateness to participate in the upcoming trial and MORE instructions.
I made the first cut. Then the questions got more personal. Did any of us have any relationships with any police officers? Did we feel said relationships would bias our opinion concerning matters of this trial? We had to stand up and tell what our relationships were and how they would affect our opinions. That was it for me. We are friends with four different police officers and know how hard they work getting the 'bad guys' and usually the courts let them go. In not those exact words I got my point across so I was GONE by 12 o'clock!
No reading paperbacks, no ordering clothes, no Ipod listening, no cookbook perusing, nothing, zippo! So I schlepped the stuff back into the sardine can sized elevator, found my car still hiding in the YMCA parking lot and came home! I don't have to check in again until Aug. 22 when there are three more trials. Whew! I'm exhausted! :0)
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Jury Duty
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
11 comments:
I think you would have been exhausted just packing and carring all that stuff :)
You were well prepaird that is forsure.
I'm glad you didn't get stuck there all day long though.
Did I mention my grandma has jury duty this week also. She doesn't have to go in until thursday. I think they just need to call in on Wednesday night though to see if there is a case or not for thursday so she might not have to go anywhere.
I packed a bag very similar to that when Bill had his surgery. I never even opened it! (plus I had to tote the heavy thing around everywhere!
Now you can have a little time to rest before you have to go again!
xo
At least nobody can say you weren't prepared!
I'm glad you got off, but it's really a shame that the legal system works this way. What a bunch of CRAP.
Sounds to me like you packed enough for a month!
I keep getting called for jury duty but with all my horses to care for, I get excused. They wouldn't ever use me on a jury anyway. I've been told by prosecutors I know way too much about the system and offenders that I'll never be called. Pretty sad a system that doesn't want knowledgable jurors.
Oh well, I wish you luck, especially in the shopping for the horsey things department. Now that sounds like fun.
I absolutely cannot believe you took all that stuff. When I went in May, I took 2 Reader's digests, a long sleeve shirt and my cigarettes/lighter which I used all day because all I did was sit and wait or walk outside to smoke Never got called upstairs (gratefully). I am surprised you have to call again on the 22nd. Once we do the one day and if we don't get called up, we are free.
And if you wouldn't have brought anything at all, you would have been waiting for a couple of hours being bored! LOL Did the judge look at your tote bags and ask if you were planning on moving in?? hehe Good for you for getting out of this trial, hopefully you'll be as lucky with the remaining three!!! xoxox
I have yet to be called for jury duty...but my mom has been called up several times over the years!
At least you were all prepared!
But isn't hard to try to wade through a book you're just not into? I've done that a few times, too, in the past...not so much anymore, though. I'm currently reading through the Mitford series and am enjoying those a lot!
Take care- and good luck when you have to do the whole thing over in a couple weeks! ;)
Sounds like you had a busy day and didn't get to do any of those things you wanted to do!...ugh
Just keep your bag packed for next time!!!!
Oh my dear!!
In my country there's no juryduty.
There's a judge who knows the law, and he and the law represent us all.
I like your bag though. Lots to do...
I read this one to my hubby and he laughed as much as I did :) You, dear lady, are a hoot! Two totes full! LOL! I like to have something to do while I wait too :)
I saw some scruffy ones in the jury too, when I had Grand Jury duty in 2000. And then there were the ones who watched too many detective shows........and thought they were Perry Mason (I can't think of any modern lawyer names:)
They drove the rest of us crazy, asking stupid questions, which they thought made them sound very intelligent, of course. We had at least 3 people like that.
Is it GJ duty that you have?
Post a Comment