my civic duty

I had jury duty today!  The Colorado process is such that you call the night before to see if your number was selected.  On Monday and Tuesday, 500 people were called in.  They brought in 2,000 on Wednesday.  That was when I got nervous.  What if a big murder trial was coming up?  Eeks!

The walk over was cold and wet with snow and high winds whipping me in the face everywhere I turned.  I showed up to the court soaking wet and had to go through security, I realized at the last minute that the body bugg was on so I tried to smoothly remove it.  The smooth part of the attempt did NOT work.  But I got through and to the jury room in plenty of time.

I had brought three magazines and a book to read during what I had expected to be a long boring day of hearing other people’s numbers called before I was let go.

They started calling the first 36 jurors to be selected and I was the second to last person called.  Then we were led over to the court room and we were all seated strategically and I was placed in the jury box.  So, in order to get out of jury duty, one of the attorney’s would have to actively reject me.

(the goods I picked up from Tony’s Market)

The jury selection process was VERY thorough and slow, thanks to all the potty breaks people needed to take at non-strategic times.  Thankfully, after the long and thorough process they got to the part where each attorney got to reject jurors, they could reject 12 people.  I was the 8th person rejected.  PHEW!

(Dinner: mussels and fries at le central)
I know this sounds totally un-civic minded but this was not a good time for me.  (who IS it a good time for?)  Plus, I’ve already paid my dues.

Have you had jury duty?