Friday, March 4, 2011

Well, I did it—put in my time serving as a juror. Had to report to court at 7:45 this morning. After an hour of just sitting there in the staging room, a woman came and gave us an orientation about being jurors. Than a judge, who thought he was a stand-up comic, and was quite entertaining, came and spoke to us. After that, we sat. And sat. And sat some more.

Time seemed to crawl, and then 11:30 AM arrived. That same woman came back and called off about thirty names of individuals who were to then report to an actual courtroom. Mine wasn’t amongst them. Then the nice lady told us remaining individuals that we could leave for lunch early but to be back at 1:30 PM.

Having been taunted all morning by a Starbucks that was just across the street but too far to get to and back from during the two breaks they gave us earlier, I bolted for my java haven and had a sandwich there while sitting outside—needed to be outside by then. I really don’t do well cooped up in a building all day.

Killed the rest of my time walking the area and poking my head in and out of a few antique stores that I haven’t been in for years. Then it was time to return to court.

I got back and had a chance to get settled prior to that same nice lady who then called roll. Hearing my name, I announced that I was there. Others weren’t so lucky, having taken a longer lunch than they should have. For them, the process of serving will begin anew, as they were assigned new dates when they did finally opt to return to the courthouse.

So there I sat, happy I’d made it back, but bored to tears, despite having a book to read and my smart phone to work on. Another hour passed. It’s amazing how tiring doing relatively nothing can be. Then a different woman came to the microphone and announced that we were not going to be needed after all. The time was 2:30 PM.

But…we were still not free to go. Had to wait for official word from the court that we could be released, our time as jurors having been officially served. About a half an hour later, the woman got words and had us line up single-file to turn in our juror badges in return for a completion of jury duty certificate.

I suppose I should have felt a sense of accomplishment, having just been handed a certificate, but what I felt was really…nothing, except I was delighted to be leaving, knowing that I was off the hook for jury duty for another twelve whole glorious months.