Jury Duty

My jury duty yesterday was really not all that I hoped it would be.  At all.

I did love riding on the DART rail.  I loved not having to drive in traffic, or pay for parking.  I felt so urban!

the highlight of the day- DART rail- yay!

 I reported to the Municipal Court building at 9:15.

the outside of the courthouse is beautiful...the inside, not so much

All the potential jurors, about 60 of us in all, were put in this little waiting room.  Around 10am, some man came in and gave us a 30 minute speech about jury duty, including going through, line by line, all of the things that were in the letter of our jury summons that we had read weeks ago all by ourselves.  He  told us that all the trials in this particular building were Class C Misdemeaners-  usually traffic violations.  How boring! He tried to make it exciting, and I think he loved talking in front of a group, but I was just sad that they had turned off "Regis and Kelly" that was on the TV shoved in the corner of the room. 

Around 11:30, we all were released for a lunch break but were told to report back by 1:30.  So we had a long lunch, which sounds great IF I had  a) a friend to hang out with or b) a book or c)close proximity to shops, or museums.  But that wasn't the case.  There were only a few eating places they told us about that were within walking distance.  I ate a panini at a little cafe, and then sat there, uncomfortably, for as long as I could stand it.  Then I walked around outside, getting yelled at by a construction man for walking where I wasn't allowed.

When I went back to the court building, I felt like I was reporting for Jr. High school detention.

Many of my fellow jurors had shared a table at lunch, so there was a lot more conversation in the afternoon.  And most of it was just complaining about how inefficient this whole jury duty thing seems to be.

I sat between a man with a touch (a heavy touch) of body odor, and a woman that started every third sentence with, "Girl,..." whether she was talking to me, or the man next to me.  It was a very non-gendered "Girl!" the way I've heard some people use "Dude".  

At just a little after 4pm, an officer came in and called out 15 peoples name for a jury panel to be interviewed.  The rest of us were finally released around 4:15.  The court building closes at 5pm, so whether I had been selected as a juror or not really didn't make a big difference. 

Although I did nothing all day, it was exhausting.  Sitting with nothing to do for hours on end can feel like a beating.  And it did.

happily back on DART at the end of my grueling day of jury duty!