Short Lived

The most stressful part of jury duty is trying to make sure all your kids are taken care of for the day.  You don't know how long you will be gone.  I tried to google what to expect with jury duty, but didn't find much on the subject.  I am a planner and I like to know what to expect.

Tuesday morning was an early morning.  I had to get up, showered, breakfast and lunches made. As I was in the kitchen, Jay asked my about what I was doing.  I had explained to them the day prior what I was doing.  Our conversation went something like this:

Jay:  I am going to ask my teacher to turn on the tv. 
Me: (puzzled)Why would you ask your teacher to turn on the tv? 
Jay: So that they could watch me.
Me: (even more puzzled) How would you watch me on tv. 
Jay:  You going to be on Judge Judy. 
Me: (laughing) No, not judge Judy....Jury Duty.  No offense Judge Judy I would be happy to be on your show anytime as long as I am not the one being sued.  He just had it wrong.
That made my morning.

 I delivered the older boys next door and Tee down the street with my preschool carpooler.  I then made my way to the courthouse.  We are fortunate that the courthouse is not downtown where parking would be an issue.  The courthouse is very close to my house.

I arrived a little prior to my assigned time.  I had to walk through the metal detector, which went off but the officer told me it was as it was the buckle on my shoes.  We were shuffled up the steps around a few corners into a room.  The room was standing room only.  They did bring out a few chairs.  We waited for a while as people continued to show up.  It was so crowded that people were sitting on the steps. 

The man who was standing outside the room as prospective jurors showed up went up to the front of the room.  He said that many years back jury duty consisted of about 200 people a month.  Back then you had to be available for an entire month.  They now call about 200 jurors a week.  Yes, that means lots of trial juries.  The man also mentioned that sometime cases will be settled as they are walking into court or if there is evidence missing the trial must be postponed.

After his spiel, he had us all sign in and paid us our $15 for showing up.  It took a while to get everyone signed in.  He said his next job was to get things moving in the courts so that he could get us in or out. 

When I got up to sign in, someone ended up taking my chair.  So I then was stuck sitting on a step.  A very uncomfortable step.  I read a magazine and talked a little bit to the lady sitting next to me.  Of course, I people watched also.  Many people were on their phones or were reading.  One lady was knitting.  The lady next to me was working on a crossword puzzle.

They say the jury summons are random but I just don't know if I believe that.  I looked around, there seemed to be the same number of women and men and then a breakout of young, younger and older.  I guess I will put me in the young category.

Then the good news came.  It was announced there would be no jury trials and we could all leave.  We were done for the week and could not be called back for at least 3 years.  I guess I made $15 for sitting 1 1/2 hours.