Jury Duty

Jury Duty – Part I*

So, I finally received that dreaded letter from the local county government. Actually, I received it this last summer, but asked for a deferment because I didn’t have any way to get Caleb to and from daycare given the hours I needed to be 140 blocks in the opposite direction. Who would have thought that Eric’s illness would have made JD easier…

So, what I don’t get is that presumably we all received the same letter with the courthouse’s guidelines. Pretty simple stuff. You know, like wearing appropriate attire. Not a baby blue track suit with a logo emblazoned across the booty. Not a pair of jeans with more threadbare spots (HOLES) than actual denim. I’m not sure what it says about those individuals. I have my opinion, but I will let you form your own. I sure wish I had brought my camera to show just how ridiculous people can be. One kid honestly said that he needed to get out of JD because it was "painful to get up so early."

It makes me wish that I worked downtown in a way because the Freeway Flyer is pretty easy to use. Or rather, I wish there was something that went to where I work, but unfortunately, it is in a different county and the two systems don’t intermesh all that well.

I did bring knitting because I knew there would be a lot of down time. I thought carefully about it because, while I was tempted to bring something interesting like the Pomatomus sock, I also knew that being held hostage would be the perfect opportunity to work on Eric’s scarf.

I also have the laptop with me, because I have so much to do for work. Tradeshow season is in full swing and the potential buyers for the corporation are coming through to ensure that we really exist. At least this way, I can try to keep up with emails and make a few phone calls. I turns out that the free wi-fi is like most things that are free. Connectivity is spotty at best.



Jury Duty – Part Deux

I didn’t get called for a trial yesterday and was lucky enough to get released at noon. This means that I earned $8.00 yesterday. At this rate, I will be able to eat lunch after all.

Because there is a ton of construction going on near downtown (we are lucky to have a 4 year project to revamp one of the largest freeway interchanges in the state going on in the middle of the downtown) there is very limited parking and what there is costs a small fortune. The city is genius and gives us all a bus ticket to use. It is pretty handy. I drove 10 minutes to a Park and Ride, pick up the bus and have to walk one block to the courthouse.

After 30 minutes in the "Jury Management" room on the second day, I, along with 44 other people, got called to a courtroom. We all knew it was not a good sign that they needed such a large initial pool. I kept thinking, please let it be a criminal case, please let it be criminal, knowing full well that as the daughter of a police officer, no defense attorney in their right mind would allow me to be on the jury.

While my luck didn't hold in that regard, it was a civil case after all, it could have been worse. The case was a medical malpractice case and in short order, I got booted. Thank you honey for getting me out of jury duty because of your chosen profession.

Some knitting got done, some got ripped because of the remarkably bad light in the hallways. Again, it is a black scarf, I will post pictures when it is all done if we get a sunny day. (As this is Wisconsin, the odds are not in my favor for quite a while.)

*The vast majority of this was written previously and I finally got my lazy butt around to posting it.