Jury Duty...

I can now mark, "Going to Jury Duty" off my list of things to do. After nearly 8 years of dodging the bullet due to various reasons such as, babies, breastfeeding, working hardship, blah blah blah, they finally forced me to go and stay. In a way, it was exciting, because I truly did want to experience it, and see how things happen. But, I was also a bit worried that I would get picked, because I have a very important meeting regarding Julianne today at 5 pm, that I COULD NOT miss.

So, this is how it went.

First of all, not only did I have to attend jury duty, downtown, where I am not so familiar with how to get there and park and find the shuttle, all in a timely manner. (All of which I did fine, thank goodness!), but it also was icing, and snowing...which if you know me at all, you know that I am scared crapless to drive in the snow and ice. On top of that already mounting stressful bowl of life, I had to get situated my daycare issue. My sweet Aunt Mary, who usually drives to the city on Monday's to watch the little Pepperoni's offered to stay the night on Sunday, so she wouldn't have to deal with the drive and ice issues. It was such a sweet offer, but I told her it wasn't necessary, because the kids would probably be off school, since the great Meteorologists were predicting GREAT snow and ICE, as if the world was going to fall off its axis because of so much snow. So, the plan was that Jeff would take off work and stay with the kids, who would surely be out of school...since it was going to be so "bad". Well, there was ice, but it ended up not being so bad, and the kids were NOT off school, which threw the whole plan out the window. But, my dear husband does not mind driving in ice and snow, and graciously took Audrey over to my mom's to watch for the day.

Back to Jury Duty.

I get there at 8 am. Sit in my chair, in my "jury duty zone". Jury Duty Zone is when you sit in your chair, acting as if you don't mind that there are 400 other people in the room with you, two of which are touching your arms and you are squeezing your butt and legs so tight because, God forbid if you touch legs...that would be too much. And I sat reading, or pretending to read my book borrowed from my 10 year old, and ate from my bag of chocolate covered peanuts. Until 10:30, when my Juror number was called. So, I head to the assigned area, and sit some more. Same deal, different spot. Then go to the courtroom. Find out it is going to be a criminal trial. Cool, I think...beats people suing over stupid stuff. A rape trial. Ok, maybe not so cool, but should be interesting none the less.

Well, that is where the coolness stops, and the very irritating, annoying and any other word that would mean, "Totally getting on my nerves" starts. We just get started...and by started, I mean, we just start to get questioned to see who might actually get to be a juror in this case, when WHAMO, why not break for 2 freaking hours for lunch. Gosh darn it. What the hello am I supposed to do for 2 hours, downtown, where I can't leave, because my car is parked elsewhere, and it is snowing and icing out???? Geez.

So, after lunch, we get back into the courtroom, sit down, when immediately the guy with the gun in the brown suit says, "The judge needs a little more time. Please go wait outside the room, it should be about 20 more minutes." Well, in jury duty time, 20 minutes means TWO HOURS. Good lord, I'm not even kidding. What a hard thing to do, wait.

After the two hour long 20 minutes, we get back in...more questioning...still no jurors picked. SURE, why not just come back in the morning and start all over. Ugh.

So, this morning....it is SNOWING!!! ugh ugh ugh. I get there ON TIME. 9 am sharp I am sitting in my juror chair. Waiting more. 9:45 the guy in the brown suit with the gun, again starts to talk. This time, however, he said the guy took a plea, and sorry you all had to come here in this weather, but that is how it works around here.

Home I went.

Time served....I better not get called again for a long time. :)