Jury Duty or the Day of the Boookworm

Yesterday I had to report for jury duty. Now, I've never been to jury duty before. I've gotten summoned, but I was lucky enough to be at school, or in the case of the last summons I got, was from PG County, right after we had moved to Montgomery. HAHA! But this time, no such luck, and no acceptable excuse. I let everyone know at my office (read, I complained to everyone in my office), and Andy had a good laugh at me because I was a registered voter, and like a sucker, actually got called to do "my civic duty".

So I got up bright and early yesterday morning to make my way to downtown Rockville to report in. I brought along two books and a sweater. Now the sweater I'm so glad I brought with me. A friend of mine suggested I bring it, since in her experience with jury duty, it was a cold room, with uncomfortable chairs. It was 67 degrees yesterday when I got up. I got up a 6 AM. It was a warm day, and I almost didn't bring it. But remembering the uncomfortable chairs part of her advice, I thought it would be good for a pillow if nothing else.

I arrived at the juror parking lot about 20 minutes early, walked up the street, and went in. I had to go through security before I was allowed in the building and there was a small line. I don't know if the two middle-aged women in front of me were wearing steel earrings or what, but both of them set off the alarm and had to be passed over with the hand held wand the security guards use. I thought the thing must be really sensitive, because these women were not wearing belts with big buckles, large earrings or anything you might blame the problem on. I passed through with no problem, maybe the security guys just have a thing for middle-aged women.

I went upstairs and sat in the "Jury Lounge". When I walked in, the temperature felt comfortable, the chairs looked comfy, and I felt like an idiot with my fleece pullover on a day that was supposed to reach 90. But I looked for an empty space and sat down. 20 minutes later we went through the checking in process, where you prove you're there so they don't send the cops to your house, and you get your stupid little maroon JUROR badge. The folks were very nice and seemed very friendly and walked us through some basic instructions and gave us some funny "real stories" of what not to do. I don't know if the stories were fake, or if the woman giving the presentation had just said the same thing so many times it just came out canned, but in either case they were a bit cheesy.

Then one of my favorite parts of the day. The Video. It had one of the guys from 60 Minutes doing a spiel about how important our legal system was and then we got to see clips of how old legal systems worked. Maybe for the actors in the video, it looks very good on their resume that they were "Drowned Witch #1" in the Montgomery County Juror Orientation Tape, but somehow I doubt it. This wasn't the best bit though. After the little scene plays of old judicial systems, it switched into how to be a juror mode. The first part of this section of the video started with a voice saying and a title appearing "So you've been called for jury duty". I almost died. I wanted to pick up my cell phone right then and there and call my husband and tell him what was going on. To preface, when we were at college, there was a set of pamphlets in the health center, our favorite was of course " So you've got Mono". It was running joke. When I got Mono later on in college I got to have one of those lovely pamphlets. It's still in one of my memory boxes somewhere.

After I'd managed to calm myself down to keep from laughing or dialing rapidly, the video was over and then it was time to meet the head judge of Montgomery County. Nice man, but also very canned. Then the original woman came back and told me my second favorite thing of the day. "We don't just pick from voter registration anymore. We also pull from Motor Vehicle records." Again complete use of self control was necessary to keep from laughing out loud or rapidly dialing and laughing loudly in Andy's ear.

Then the DULL part. The waiting. We waited from 9 AM until 11 AM when we got our first half hour break. During which the room got incredibly cold (thank you thank you thank you for telling me to bring a sweater!) Then at 12 we were told to go to lunch and not come back until 2. Till 2??? I could drive home have an hour long lunch and drive back and still have some time to spare. What was I going to do, by myself for 2 hours? I would've gone home, as mentioned, if not for the parking problem. Free parking being limited, and myself being cheap. So I walked around near the judicial building. It was a really lovely day yesterday. I found a nice place to eat, with a terrific southwestern chicken salad and plopped down outside with my book and read while I ate. I love to read so even though that's what I'd been doing all morning, it wasn't really boring. After I finished my salad, I noticed there was a Ben and Jerry's scoop shop next door. Now, I haven't been in one of those since my (very fattening) summer in Vermont. Ok, I KNOW there's one in Annapolis, but I'm not driving an hour away to go to a scoop shop. So I went in and bought a cone. I know I know what you're thinking "can I have a massive Big Mac and a diet soda?" But I couldn't resist, it was a warm day and their ice cream is just so good.

Now that I've killed 45 minutes of my 2 hour lunch, what to do next? I spot a little park across the street with some nice looking benches. So I walk on over, plop down with my icecream, my book, and my very handy sweater-pillow, and you guessed it, read.

After lunch I went back in and waited some more, until finally at about 4 they came out and told us to go home. One trial had settled out of court, and the other was still in preliminary hearings. District court was done for the day, so they wouldn't send any cases over. HURRAH!

I got my $15 check and went home. All in all, not a bad day or experience. I got to read a good book, I got some good icecream, and I got a day off from work. Plus, I'm excused for at least 3 years. Not a bad deal.