Monday, March 19, 2007

"civic duty"

Well, I was fortunate enough to experience the joy of my civic duty last week as I sat for 8 hours in Jury Duty. What a joke that was! I checked the status of when I needed to report and Monday, I was safe, Tuesday and Wednesday were clear as well, but Thursday I had to report at 8 AM! Really people...8am?? So I went down to the court house, checked in...sat around for an hour and then at 9:15 they showed us an informative 'orientation video'...(yes, informative if you're in the 3rd grade!) So really, what was the reason we were there at 8 if nothing...and I mean NO-thing happened between 8 and 9:15. Seriously! So, they called the first group...no Marissa...2 hours later...new group...no Marissa. In the beginning I was relieved that my name wasn't called, but with the minutes crawling by like years, I figured being in a court room would pass the time quicker.
Well, lunch finally came. They gave us TWO WHOLE HOURS for lunch! Hopefully that was just for us jurors and that not everyone in the court house took a two hour lunch or else I may start hoarding my tax dollars into some Cayman Island bank account. (Actually, I should start that anyway...) Regardless, what was I supposed to do around downtown sac with two hours?...I walked down 9th street and got some food..(whoo-wee a whole 30 minutes passed!) I went back to the court house and luckily it was nice outside, I sat on one of those REALLY comfortable stone benches and ate and read the book I brought...(which, don't get me started...I wanted to crochet, but they made me take the needle back out to the car...and so this boring book was helping the time go by that much slower.) I should have gone to the K street mall, but I don't really know my way around downtown. I mean, I realize it's on K street, but that's as good as it gets with me.
SO, after the excitement of a two hour lunch, it's back to the little jury waiting room: slightly more comfortable than a doctors office, less sterile, and you're sitting in chairs like they have at the airport, but sadly, once your name is called you're not on your way to some exotic destination. I sat there, trying to read my book but I think I read the same page 8 times before I actually turned it. If anyone was watching me, they'd think I had some serious mental incapabilities because of the 25 minutes it took me to turn a page. In the 8 hours I was there, I got through 40 pages. Yikes! Maybe that 3rd grade orientation video was perfect for me!
One more hour passed and still I sat waiting. The lady in the little booth announcing when a court room was ready kept giving us half-hour updates (which just made the time creep by slower). No court rooms opened in the afternoon so we sat there...waiting. Luckily they let us go at 3:30 instead of 5:00 because no new cases are opened after that time.
What a way to spend a beautiful day! And next year, they'll just call me up to do it again. Yipee! I hope jury duty is as blissfully happy for everyone else in the world doing their 'civic duty.' And can I just say something about this "Civic Duty" stuff?? I don't litter, I'm not a bank robber...in fact I haven't ever even committed a misdemeanor. That should be civic duty enough! PLEASE!