Monday! My favorite (week)day of the week!
This weekend went by in a total fantastic blur. Highlights included: going to CrossFit (and lifting more than I thought I could), eating dinner with the in-laws, volunteering at an organization that is implementing an IT solution for a homeless shelter, volunteering at church with the babies (I could hold babies all day and be happy… it’s when they learn to talk that they lose some of the charm factor for me.), spending time with my cousin who was visiting from Boston, and even finding time to relax a bit!
Phew. It makes me tired just typing that.
But this post actually isn’t about this past weekend at all.
No, this post is actually about last week. If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen that I performed my civic duty by showing up for jury duty on Thursday.
And because I didn’t have wi-fi in the jury room and needed to do something to preoccupy myself, I wrote down what I was thinking.
(You’re welcome for not tweeting all of this… I would have lost followers by the hundreds, I’m fairly certain).
Why did they send me to a courthouse an hour away from where I live?! Rush hour is brutal in Chicago!
I really hope all these ‘no electronics’ signs don’t apply to me. I swear I saw online I could bring in my laptop…
Well shoot, I waited for 25 minutes in a security line when the line on the other side of the building was completely empty. That’s inconvenient.
PHEW, I’m allowed to bring my laptop and phone into the jury room.
Yay, I’m one of the first ones in the jury room! Everyone else is undoubtedly waiting to get through security. I’m totally going to nab a desk spot.
WHY don’t they have internet here? I mean I knew they wouldn’t, but whyyyyyyy?!
At least my phone has internet.
That intro video was super boring and I still really don’t know what we’re supposed to be doing all day.
Payphones still exist! We have one in the back of the jury room.
OK, a man just came in hacking up a lung and told the front desk he had already served on a jury this year. They told him he could go home and he said no, because he really wanted to fulfill his civic duty. Then they told him he might not want to spread germs to everyone else in this room and he said he wouldn’t mind. WHAT?! I MIND! GO HOME, SIR!
With my luck he’s going to sit next to me.
Yep, he sat approximately 10 feet from me. Awesome. I’m probably going to end up with pneumonia or tuberculosis.
I will focus on reading I will focus on reading…. INSTAGRAM!
I’m hungry. More specifically, I want soup. Lots of soup.
I have to pee and I’m not sure if I should leave all my stuff unattended on this table. But I mean, it’d be weird for my stuff to get stolen IN A COURTHOUSE, right?
I’m probably going to get a bladder infection during the time I’m sitting here debating a course of action.
OK, I’m just going to leave my stuff on this desk and hope it doesn’t get stolen. On second thought, I’ll just bring my purse with me and leave everything else – yeah, that’s a good idea.
Yep, I got the best spot in this place, right next to an outlet. Cell phone is plugged in and still functioning and other people are asking to use my outlets – ah, I feel quite powerful.
Oh gosh, have I really only been here 2 hours?! This is going to be a loooong day.
I guess I’ll just count everyone in here to pass some time. OK, that got boring, but I think there are about 50 people in this room and they said there’s one jury trial today so does that mean 12 of us will have something to do and the other 38 are just sitting here for fun?
Interesting.
But seriously, if there was internet in this room, I wouldn’t mind at all. I would get so much blogging stuff done!
(This may not be true, actually. I have internet all day at home and I don’t get that much blog stuff done.)
I wish I was at CrossFit. Thursdays are my CrossFit days and this is really messing up my schedule.
Also, I had to cancel a lunch date today to be here. I really wish they would have asked me to serve on a day where I had nothing else going on. Like, maybe if they had given me a choice of three days that would have been way more convenient. If only they had a suggestion box for me to submit these types of thoughts. Alas.
THEY DO HAVE A SUGGESTION BOX!
I’m freezing. But if I put on my jacket then I’ll probably be hot. If only I had that soup…
I’m still confused as to why they’re paying us all to sit in this room for 7 hours. Are we eventually going to need to do something?!
LUNCH TIME! 1.5 hours?! YES.
I guess I’ll just check to see what the courthouse cafeteria has…
Uhhhh the ‘cafeteria’ only has vending machines. NO THANKS. To my car I go.
If all else fails, there’s a mall nearby and I can shop for about an hour. Yay!
Thank goodness I found a Panera (while driving around aimlessly) – soup and a salad it is! My cravings are satisfied.
OK, 1:30pm and I’m back in the juror room. I suppose I’ll just check Instagram and Twitter one more time…
What? We’re dismissed 2 hours early?! At only 2:30?! Okay then, but I was just getting comfortable.
$17.20?! I guess I’ll take it. But this really doesn’t even cover my lunch and gas money for today…
Bye, Jury Duty! It looks like I won’t be seeing you for at least 12 more months.
All in all, I really didn’t mind going to jury duty as much as I thought I might! I was a little disappointed that I got scheduled for a semi-inconvenient day, but other than that, it was pretty nice to relax for a day. Although, I will say that my experience would have been much more pleasant with some internet access. I mean, really… what kind of place doesn’t have the internet?!
Also, I’m still undecided about whether I would have liked to been chosen for a trial (or at least questioned) but I guess there’s always next time!
Have you ever gotten summoned for jury duty? Was your experience more exciting than mine?!
Cheers to the beginning of a new and (hopefully) fantastic week!
