Jury Duty

Yeah, probably a boring blog entry. Don't feel you need to read it just to be nice. I'll understand. There's nothing seductive about jury duty. Believe me.

I was dreading going. I'll admit it. I called Wednesday night, hoping it had been canceled or my name was on that recorded message telling you not come in, but alas, that did not happen. I checked again online the next day, hoping that plans had been changed and they didn't need me. The online service told me, in no uncertain terms (and in bright red, bold type) that I was scheduled to appear. Wah.

So I had to get Ellie up 15 minutes earlier than usual, which was no easy feat. The poor kid was tired. And she did everything she possibly could to make us late this morning because that's the way she rolls. I managed to drop her off at daycare and get out of there by 8am, leaving me 1/2 an hour to park, walk to the courthouse, get through the metal detectors, and get up to the 7th floor.

Luck was on my side because there wasn't any traffic on I-95, a rare occurence, especially in that area of 95 I was traveling. I had no problems parking, and walked to the courthouse in the cold in a matter of minutes. I got through security easily (I obviously don't look suspicious because the cop was like, "just walk through; don't worry about emptying your pockets" while they nearly strip searched the guy ahead of me).

I got into the jury room 10 minutes early and watched CNN for a bit. They were covering that awful plane crash last night. Just terrible. I hate to hear stuff like that.

They signed us in, we watched a video, a judge came to talk to us, then I proceeded to drink copious amounts of coffee and re-read Twilight until it was time for us to go to the courtroom.

Lucky me, I was 4th on the list, so they got to questioning me around 11:45am. Time had quickly gone by; I couldn't believe it was almost noon when I got in there; it had felt like I'd been at the courthouse for an hour or so. Bring the right book, and jury duty is totally fun! LOL

The defense attorney questioned me, we talked about Seattle-sound music when he found out I graduated in '95 (must be a calming tactic... to find something of interest to the potential juror so they relax and answer more truthfully), then he told me a little about the case I would possibly be listening to. It ended up that because I've been injured in a car accident previously, that might taint my ability to be fair in the trial they wanted me to hear.

So I'm not on the jury. And they let me go at noon. Which is a total bonus because now I have an entire 1/2 day to myself.

The end.