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I had jury duty today. I almost forgot until I glanced at my calendar--then it was "Oh my God, I have to get to the courthouse in an hour and a half!" Then I realized that an hour-and-a-half actually gave me enough time to get dressed, have breakfast, and drive over there without breaking any speed limits.
So while I'm driving on the elevated expressway, my cellphone rings. It's my daughter; she threw up and wants to go home from school. Fortunately, she's old enough to drive her own car. Unfortunately, she needs me to tell the lady at the school office I have her permission to go home. This is unfortunate, because I am driving 70 mph in traffic and oh by the way that was my exit that I just passed...
Amazingly enough, I made it to the courthouse in one piece. They even have a covered parking deck with free parking for jurors these days! Well, got there, got curled up with a newspaper in the jury assembly room and did the usual waiting. We watched the instructional video. About the time the Clerk of Court (his stand-in, actually) was finishing up his speech and the Q&A period, he got a note from the office ladies--"Send them home". Seems all the cases had settled or otherwise didn't need a jury today. Boy, that was a short tour of duty! Several people were actually miffed that it wasn't most of the day, because now they had to go back to work instead of having the whole day off. I could have told them--everytime I have Parish (that's how we spell County in Louisiana) jury duty, I always get sent home after sitting around on "Stand-by". The only time I got into a trial was when I had federal jury duty, but that's a whole 'nother story.
*Sigh* Back to chores.
So while I'm driving on the elevated expressway, my cellphone rings. It's my daughter; she threw up and wants to go home from school. Fortunately, she's old enough to drive her own car. Unfortunately, she needs me to tell the lady at the school office I have her permission to go home. This is unfortunate, because I am driving 70 mph in traffic and oh by the way that was my exit that I just passed...
Amazingly enough, I made it to the courthouse in one piece. They even have a covered parking deck with free parking for jurors these days! Well, got there, got curled up with a newspaper in the jury assembly room and did the usual waiting. We watched the instructional video. About the time the Clerk of Court (his stand-in, actually) was finishing up his speech and the Q&A period, he got a note from the office ladies--"Send them home". Seems all the cases had settled or otherwise didn't need a jury today. Boy, that was a short tour of duty! Several people were actually miffed that it wasn't most of the day, because now they had to go back to work instead of having the whole day off. I could have told them--everytime I have Parish (that's how we spell County in Louisiana) jury duty, I always get sent home after sitting around on "Stand-by". The only time I got into a trial was when I had federal jury duty, but that's a whole 'nother story.
*Sigh* Back to chores.
