Waste of a day

Jury duty are the two key words here. A few weeks ago I received a summons for jury duty. I thought, "Oh bummer." A day or two later I received a duplicate summons. I suppose they started sending everyone duplicates to send a clear message that they mean business.

Everyone gave me advice on what to say to get out of it. I heard some crazy stuff too! "Tell them you're studying pre-law." "Tell them you have a good friend who's a cop and that you are very pro-cop." "Tell them you think the system is bust and you don't trust it." Yada, yada, yada. The thing is you actually need to find yourself in a courtroom to have the opportunity to say any of those things. One lady today actually told the jury coordinator that jury duty was "against her religion". Another moron first claimed he was sick (he actually brought a medical mask with him) then later claimed he was a student. Nope, if you have a conflict of interest or some other problem it's not relevant until you are actually in a courtroom.

My summons informed me that I was to check in no later than 8:30. I arrived early to the jurors room. At around 8:45 we received jury duty "orientation"-which was a joke. I took Civics in middle school and American Government in high school, so I understand how and why our government is set up the way it is. Although I suppose if you slept through all of your social studies classes you just might need the crash course in civics.

After the "orientation" (read-waste of my time) they started calling people for cases. Then they stopped. And I sat...

...and sat,

...and sat,

and then I did something really original...I sat some more. I read the book I toted to the courthouse. I actually dozed off for a while. Then around 10:40 they started calling people for more cases. Finally at 10:45 I was called!

...and my group was informed that the judge wanted us to take a lunch break and come back at 1:15. Yes-we were told to take a 2 1/2 hour lunch break. So I wandered the downtown district aimlessly for a bit. I had lunch. I unfortunately found the worst Starbucks in town. (Seriously! I always get a decaf-Cafe Mocha. They screwed it up not once, but twice! It tasted bitter, like burnt coffee. ICK!) And then eventually meandered back to the courthouse.

My group came back at 1:15...and sat around for another half an hour until finally the bailiff called us all into the actual courtroom. The judge then gave us his spiel about why jury duty is important to our justice system. Like I said, I took civics so none of it was news to me. Then just as we were about to get down to business the bailiff said, "Excuse me, we have a verdict!" Apparently the defendant copped a plea-at least I assume. Then the judge asked us all to wait in the hall. We sat there for another half hour only to come back...to be sent home.

I really had much better things to do with my day. What a waste of my time and energy.