Jury Duty

Three weeks ago, I received "the envelope". It was more omnious than the thin rejection letter from Northwestern University. The black, bold letters were imposing on the stark white background. And in an instant, I got the call for jury duty.

This is my third jury duty calling -- the first since moving to New Jersey. The first time was my sophomore year of college. It actually worked out well, seeing as I had procrastinated on writing a social science paper. I finished the paper, and escaped the jury room unscathed.

Four years later, the evil letter came to my doorstep. I went back to the courthouse. This time, I was assigned to a courtroom. For mere moments I was empaneled. I had purposely dressed as juvenille as possible and was soon stuck from the panel. After doing a happy dance in the hallway, I made my way back to the jury room, and was dismissed soon after.

The jury duty gods shined upon me again today. Due to the very poor directions on my instructions card, I was almost late getting to the courthouse, wandering aimlessly around Jersey City. Finally find my way and go in.

The jury room looked like two churches fighting against one another. Rows of pew-like bench faced each other, with a glass booth in the middle. I sit down, and with my luck, this guy speaking loudly on a cell phone. Every other line is, "You're breaking up! What??" This was going to be a long day.

After an orientation video, the long wait began. After two hours and nobody being called, it was time for lunch. Ah, a glimpse of freedom.

Soon after returning from lunch, the first batch of names were called. Thankfully, mine wasn't and the wait continued. More time passed. The benches were turning uncomfortable. People were getting irritable. In particular, there were these 2 grown men who were uber-obnoxious. They kept going up to the glass window and pestering them. They were cracking unfunny jokes -- trying to get released. We were all suffering, and they just made it worse. Around 4:15pm, the woman who had been updating us through the day, came to us from the glass booth, holding the microphone of doom. She called more names, telling them to return to the jury room at 9:30 tomorrow morning. Each name she read wasn't mine. The list was finished and I was not called. She then released the rest of us for the day, telling us to call at 5pm to see if we needed to come back tomorrow.

I was so happy to be home. At 5pm on the button, I called and was informed that I did NOT have to return tomorrow and my time had been served. Yay jury duty gods looking kindly on me.

I am so excited to go to work tomorrow.

Quote of the Day:
"Indeed, we do not really live unless we have friends surrounding us like a firm wall against the winds of the world." --Charles Hanson Towne