Hear ye! Hear ye!

No one likes to receive that little 4x6 postcard in the mail with "Jury Duty: Your Civic Obligation"  written in big blue letters on it. No one. Sure, they show you that video that has all those civilians talking about how jury duty was the greatest time in in their lives, and how it was so much fun and exciting, but I think those people got a free lunch to say those things. Jury duty stinks!

I was close to pulling a Liz Lemon.

Sidebar (pun intended) - whenever I say something stinks, as in it sucks, not smells, M always sniffs and says "I don't smell anything!" Love her.

After deferring my call to duty a year, I finally had to attend jury duty yesterday. I figured I would try one last time to get out of it and called the telephone number they give you and explained to the person on the line that I was a stay at home mom, with limited child care (my sitter can only work Monday and Thursday mornings) and a husband that travels a lot for work, and no one else to watch my kids. The lovely woman on the other end of the line said to me, "that's your problem, figure it out." I could tell that she loves her job working for the state of Massachusetts! (Please, note the sarcasm.) So, I was stuck with the very last date possible in my year of deferment, yesterday.

I was nervous as hell yesterday morning when I got up. Nervous to the point of breaking out in hives on the side of my face. What should I wear? I don't want to be too dressed up because then they might pick me (why? I don't know.) I don't want to look too much like a scrub...because then they might pick me (I realize this made no sense, but every decision I made led to me thinking that I would be picked in the end.) I settled on nice jeans and a sweater, but snow boots, not leather boots because I didn't want to look like I was too fancy (ridiculous thoughts I know). Should I bring a snack? Will I be able to eat? Can I use my iPad? Should I bring a book? Where am I going to park? Should I get there early? Will that make me look anxious or will that give me a low number? 

I arrived at 7:40 and was one of the first people there. I was given my little card with the #29 on it. 29? Shit. That is a low number. I was for sure going to be called into a court room with a number like 29. And three hours of sitting in silence (with iPad of course) later I was called in the second group to line up. I surveyed the rag tag group of my peers - one thing we all had in common - we all looked miserable, and anxious that we were going to be chosen for an actual jury.

Now, I have been called for jury duty before, but never actually left the jury pool room. This was my first adventure into an actual courtroom as a potential jury member, and let me tell you it was eye opening.