Jury Duty

4:30pm on Dec. 29th - I had to call to see if I had to appear for Jury Duty. I had postponed the first time I was summoned (7 YEARS ago!), so I didn't think I could do it again. Some people said I could have because I was nursing a newborn, but it was too late by then. In any case, most people said I would get dismissed once I told the judge that I couldn't serve for more than a day because I had young kids at home to care for, one which was nursing. I called and it said I needed to appear at 8am on the 30th. Of course the kids had started to get sick and I needed to get them into the dr, so Paul stayed home.

7:45am on Dec. 30th - Paul dropped me off at Maricopa County Superior Court, where I got to wait in the freezing cold wind in a long line to get in through security. I had my pump and that was fun to get through security! The guy was a little embarassed to look in the bag, so he had me open it and looked real quick. I checked in and sat down and waited.

8:45am - A judge came and talked to all the jurors. I guess it was a pep talk of sorts. He had lots of facts, like did you know Maricopa County is ranked highest in the nation for "Jury Friendliness"? Yep. When he was done we thought this would get things rolling, nope.

9:30am - They finally explained how things would work and I learned that just because 1 judge would dismiss me, didn't mean another would. You had to keep going from judge to judge until they all dismissed you, all spots were filled, or it was 5pm...whichever came first. I settled in for a long day and tried to figure out my pumping schedule.

9:45am - We watched a cool video explaining how the judicial branch worked. And if you were ever in 8th grade Civics class, or any kind of American, you would know this stuff and shouldn't be at Jury Duty if you don't!

10:00am - We were released for a 15 min break and they put on "Beverly Hills Chihuaua" for our viewing pleasure. (Note that it's been 2 hrs and nobody has been called out of the Juror Assembly Room.)

10:43am - They finally have something to tell us! The case was settled out of court, so all 400+ of us could go home! Yea! I made it out in time for Paul to pick me up and head to the kiddos' dr appt with him.

After all that, can you believe I actually kind of wished I would have at least been called back to get questioned by a judge? Oh, well. Maybe next time, after at least 18 months.

Oh, I forgot to add all the comments from "That Guy" while waiting. I'm sure you can imagine though, you know there's always "That Guy" in situations like this.