Jury Duty

So, life has been busy lately with Ian out of state for Army stuff and lots of house guest activity and kids and work, etc.  Which means now is a perfect time to be called up for jury duty!  Why not?


I have never served on a jury before.  I'm not sure if I have this time.  I spent my morning in an auditorium waiting to be called, then I did get called and 30 of us marched over to the Safety Building where we were told we would be hearing an armed robbery case, then we were asked questions about whether we were related to any criminals and/or lawyers, then we broke for lunch.

We had lots of options outside the building for finding lunch, but seeing as I was completely disoriented about where I was it seemed easier to just buy something from the 4th floor snack shop.  I had a small salad that actually left me feeling less healthy for having eaten it, and some inedible mango slices that I wound up throwing away.  (Tomorrow I will bring lunch.)

After lunch we met in the jury room, marched back to the courtroom, were then thanked for our service and dismissed back to the auditorium.

It's been weird.  On the upside I started reading The Goldfinch and am over 100 pages in and enjoying it.  Would they really call us in for a new case this late in the day?  Eh, back to my book.

UPDATE:  All done!  By the end of the day they declared that people with last names beginning with the letters A through L could go.  I won't be eligible for jury duty for at least four more years.

Of course it was inconvenient to miss a day of work to essentially just sit in the courthouse and read all day, but I'm glad I got to go.  I like the idea of the jury system.  I liked how cordial and pleasant everyone I met was from the other people in the jury pool, to the woman calling our names, to the bailiff, to the judge himself.  I hope next time I can prove myself more useful.  (But I will know to pack my own snacks.)