☆paging doctor gorgeous☆

Dismissed from jury duty, eyyyyyy.

Got there bright and early. Checked in, listened to an orientation, watched a cheesy video about how important we all are and how thankful they are for us choosing to participate (we don't choose to, we have to, because if we don't show up we're held in contempt of court and will possibly have a warrant with our name on it, and we're not important or appreciated enough to compensate properly or make accommodations for, but I digress). Wait wait wait wait wait. Read a little bit. Fiddled on my phone.

I got selected to go into a courtroom in a group of 80 people, just before lunch. They explained to us how long the trial would probably be (about five days by their estimation) and then said that whoever wanted to claim financial or personal hardship could fill out a form.

We were in the courtroom for maybe ten minutes before being dismissed for a long-ass two-hour lunch wherein I did a whole lot of sitting around doing nothing, trying to find someplace to sit in the shade while I ate my grocery store sandwich. Then, when we reconvened at 2:00, I was promptly released from service within five minutes. Love the court system's ability to waste a whole lot of peoples' time.

Yadda yadda civic duty, I knooooow, but they seem to have a very special gift for choosing only people who don't want to be there, people who find it difficult to get around, people who have to get up at the ass-crack of dawn and take twelve busses just to get to the courthouse because they don't have a car, and people who would suffer financially if they were made to take work off and accept the state's paltry and frankly insulting $15 a day. I have yet to speak to a fellow prospective juror whose entire week wouldn't be completely blown up by getting stuck on a case.

Glad it's behind me, at least for another year.