Monday, January 26, 2009

Jury Duty - Day #1 of ??

I haven't served jury duty yet, and since I'm in my 12th year of eligibility I suppose it's about time. So, here's what my civic duty looked like today: starting at 8:30 am I sat in a room with about 100 strangers, watched a video about the court system, turned in my pre-filled out paperwork, took a nap (no joke!), read a magazine, listened to my music player, chatted with a few people at my table, listened to the tapping of fingers on laptops, took a 90 minute lunch (enough time to go home and get my computer!), tried to drown out the soap operas on the TV in the background, and eaves-dropped on a few people's cell phone conversations. Nothing juicy.

Finally, the action started at 3:55 pm. I watched about 35 people get called to report to courtroom #4. About 10 mins later they called another 50 of us (my name was called this time) to report to courtroom O. We headed upstairs and waited for the bailiff to greet us and bring us inside. I was surprised to see the defendant in the courtroom. H-e-l-l-a- s-k-e-t-c-h-y looking dude in prison uniform. We were sworn in and then the judge let us know that it's estimated to be about a 7 day trial and since it was so late in the day already they would complete the jury selection tomorrow starting at 1:30 pm.

I wonder if I'll get selected?? One side of me wants to, the other side doesn't. The part that says 'hell no, get me out of here' is the same part that prefers romantic comedies to scary movies any day of the week. The part of me that does want to get selected is the same part of me that my mom sees in me when she tells me I would have made a good judge.

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