My "Civic Duty"

Yeah! I'm done! At least for another year or two, until I get the ominous letter in the mail again...you know the one...from "Superior Court of the State of California" -or whatever place you live....requesting you do to your "Civic Duty" by serving on Jury Duty. Yup, I did my duty yesterday, with very little pomp and circumstance, thank you very much...and now I'm done. The state of California has gone to a "One Day, or One Jury" type of service. You have to show up for one day of service, and if you aren't selected to sit on a jury, you are released and therefore done for at least a year. I seem to be one of the lucky ones that gets "the" letter just about every 2 years. I know some people that have never been called in....oh well....I'm not complaining (yes, I know it sounds like I am, but I'm not really....)

I spent the day sitting in the "jury lounge," (the word lounge makes it sound a lot nicer than it is really, but I guess it's sounds better than calling it the "jury holding area") The lounge consists of a very large room, with a small podium in the front center, and a great number of chairs, all in neat little rows, facing the small podium. There was a very small television in one corner and a couple of racks with outdated magazines and old books along one wall. And people, lots and lots of people, all seemingly equally thrilled to be there.

We were all told to be there promptly by 7:45am, which, being the rule follower that I am, I was. The orientation began right on time, and then came the stragglers. You'd think that people being called for Jury Duty, would at least make an effort to be on time....but you'd be wrong. There were lots and lots of latecomers...probably 50 or more. All hustling and bustling to find a "good" chair, one on the end of a row, where you didn't need to squeeze past people's knees to sit down. Most of them looked irritated, which in turn, I think, irritated the rest of us that actually did make it there on time....who did they think they were to stroll in late?

Anyway...the whole time I was there, there were only two panels of people called to go to courtroom to be interviewed for jury selection. The first group was of about 60 people, and they were being screened to sit on a 3 week case. No, thank you very much! I'm SO glad I wasn't called on that one, I've got such an honest face, you know, I'm sure I would have been selected to sit on the jury, and maybe even been the foreperson.(Hey, it's been known to happen!)....the second was a group of about 30 people called. I wasn't in that group either.

So, I read my book, (I got through over 150 pages in "Pillars of the Earth" - I'm on page 480 and still not half way through it!) and watched people. The jury lounge rates right up there with the airport and amusement parks as one of my favorite places to watch people. And let me tell you, there were some interesting ones to watch. WOW! Am I thankful that I wasn't in need of a jury of my peers yesterday.

A couple of interesting characters really jumped out at me. There was a pretty young woman, probably late 20's or early 30's in the row in front of me that picked at her nails incessantly. Nonstop, until the cuticles bled. Yuck! It was really actually kind of sad to watch. It's like she couldn't help herself. I kept trying to look away, but it was kind of like a car wreck, you can't help but to look as you drive by. I had to more...The seat I moved to was fine, until the cell phone of the person behind me kept ringing, over and over again. The ringtone was "Burning Ring of Fire", which at first made me actually laugh out loud...could you imagine that going off in a courtroom? "I went down in a burning ring of fire, I went down, down, down, and the flames kept gettin higher...." Guilty Your Honor! Lock him up for life!...Time to move seats again.

I found myself another place to sit, which, as it turns out, was right in front of a "burper." You all know the type. He must have thought it was fun, or cute to burp loudly and rudely in public and never bother to "excuse" himself. It was just plain gross. One time I actually turned around and looked to see if he'd gotten anything on himself. Geeze, I wanted to hurl. So...I was on the prowl again for a decent, semi-quiet, burp free zone. I finally found one, at the back of the room, with a couple of other people that seemed to be interested only in reading their books, and getting out of there at a reasonable hour.

At last, at 2:30pm, an announcement came over the loud speaker telling us that the courtrooms were no longer in need of juries for the day, that we had fulfilled our civic duty, and we were free to leave. People literally sprinted to the door, as if they might be called back if they hadn't exited the building within 30 seconds. I waited until the mass of people had calmed down a bit, and slowly exited the great "Hall of Justice" of San Diego Superior Court. Silly, just saying "Hall of Justice" makes me feel a bit like a super hero....no wait....that would have to be the "League of Justice" wouldn't it? Wonder Woman I'm not!