My Civic Duty

This week I have been on call for jury duty.  Each evening I have called in and a recording has told me that I do not need to report.  Except for Wednesday evening I called and the machine told me I actually had to physically go down to the court house and report for duty.  I had thought I was going to get off all week.  But, I figured that today, 9/11, of all days was a great day for me to be proud to be an american.  

I have never been on a jury before.  I was called one time when I lived in Chico and was able to get off because we already had a trip to Jamaica planned.  Today was a different story though.  The meeting room was big and they told us to come prepared with books, or music, or whatever would keep us entertained because it would be a long day of waiting.  They were right, of course.  I spent the first 3 hours waiting, finally getting sent over to a court only to be told then that the case had just settled and did not need a jury.  So I went back to do some more waiting.  The man in charge told us that we could go to lunch early and come back at 1:30 to report to another trial at 2.  He made it sound like we may be dismissed when we got back, so my hopes were high.  No such luck.  I went with the rest of the group and was the 4th person to be called for the jury.  Each juror had to state their name and info about themselves.  My heart started beating faster just thinking about talking out loud in front of everyone.  I made it through though.  After more of this and that I kept waiting for them to tell me to go home, but they didn't.  I am now an official jury member and will be reporting in the morning.  It's actually kind of exciting and interesting.  Luckily it's only going to be a 2 or 3 day trial!