Jury Duty!!!

I love jury duty, I love jury duty, I love jury duty. That is right, this is what I have been reminding myself each day that I travel to the most boring place on earth. The Bronx County Courthouse. I just finished my 3rd day of jury duty which is why I have been MIA from posting. The courthouse even has a computer room where I attempted to post on my blog but after my entire post was lost once and then I tried unsuccessfully to upload 3 times I gave up. So here is my report....

Day 1
Not so bad, kind of novel really. There are about 500+ people in the pool. I get assigned to a civil case involving a police shooting late in the morning and spend several hours in a courtroom marveling at how bumbling lawyers can still have jobs. I would have sworn they had never done jury selection before but I was wrong. They were just really bad at it. Luckily my name was not randomly drawn before they had enough jurors so I was sent back to the pool. Done for the day in time to go shopping before BSF. Not a terrible day, just kind of long and boring. Lunch options were really bad so I will bring my own lunch tomorrow.

Day 2
Did you know that the Bronx County Courthouse does an annual emergency evacuation drill? Yes, just once a year. Well today was the day. I spend most of the morning walking down the stairs with thousands of other people, standing out on the street for 45 minutes and then standing in the security line for an hour waiting to get back in. Fun! Then I found out that there was a major crisis at work. I tried to deal with it the best I could from the little computer room. Did I mention that the little computers (which are glued to the tables) automatically close down every 5 minutes? Sometimes mid-typing! Why is it that my job can be slow and boring for weeks on end but then when I have to be away for a day or two all hell breaks loose? Well, I had my lunch from home (best thing I did) and was slowly pulling out my eyelashes one by one because of the sheer boredom of waiting around. I mean it is so boring in the jury pool that I was too bored to read or do the things I brought to do. I was too bored to do anything to alleviate the boredom. But it was all worth it because if I could just last 1 more hour I was free to go home and would be done with my service. Well, that is when they called my name the second time and assigned me to a supreme court criminal case. After the first wave of questioning when they let 3/4 of the people go I knew they were going to pick me for the jury. I mean I am a perfect juror. I have never been arrested. I don't know any cops. I am not suing anyone. I have no documented scheduling problems. I couldn't say yes to a single one of their questions. But we didn't get that far. I can see why the wheels of justice move so slowly. It took us 2 hours to get through the first wave of questions. I have to come back for day three. By the time I get home I am so stressed out with the work thing that I yell at my husband and lock myself in the bathroom (it is the only door we have in our apartment to slam!). I love jury duty.

Day 3
My train is stalled because of congestion down the line. I start to get stressed that I will be late for court. I of course forgot how slow things move from my first 2 days of jury duty. Once I finally get there I end up waiting 2 hours to get called back by the judge. I had told my boss I was sure I would be done after the morning. Silly me. The remaining jurors get questioned by the judge and the attorneys. One attorney in particular talks to us like we are idiots (granted some of us probably were kind of slow) which really annoys me. The more I hear people answer the more I realize I am sure to be on this jury. Again, I am the perfect juror. During my lunch break I continue to battle the crappy court computers and make phone calls to the National Science Foundation to try and sort out this work problem. After lunch the decisions are made. 4 of the remaining 14 jurors are selected and I am one of them. Do I win a prize? Yes, I get to come back for more of this! They are giving us Thursday off while they find the rest of jury (it is the Bronx, the pickins are slim) but I have to be back on Friday.

Greg and I made up and the work situation has been sorted out. I may have to work all weekend on another crisis that emerged today but that will depend on the judge. If this trial starts on Monday then I will have to work all weekend. If not than I won't. And they wonder why people make up reasons to get out of jury duty! I for one love jury duty!