I’m juror number #648 out of 650 potential jurors. I thought it would be doubtful that I would be called to serve on an actual jury. At most I’ll be forced to watch crappy movies all day. It turns out the two movies they showed were Radio and Meet the Parents. It seems like every time I serve jury duty they show Meet the Parents.

Anyway, I was surprised when I got called at 3:45 to serve on a jury. I was shocked because jury service ends at 4:30. I felt that there was no way in hell that we would be selected and hear a case in 45 minutes. Heck, less than 45 minutes if you account for the time it took for us to leave the building and walk over to the other court house, take the elevators and find the courtroom.

As luck would have it the judge felt the same way to. After they took role and the judge spoke to the lawyers they decided to dismiss us all and start with a new pool of potential jurors tomorrow. Thank you God/Goddess! I’m glad that I missed out on that trial because it was a murder trial. The judge dismissed us at 4:15, fifteen minutes ahead of schedule.

In case you’re wondering what I did to keep myself busy while serving jury duty without my much beloved walkman (radios are banned in the courthouse). I bought my new bag along with me. I loaded it with art supplies. I didn’t bring the Alphasmart even though they do allow for laptops in the jury room, which is odd because they don’t allow for radio’s. Anyway, basically, I spent the day sketching people. No one yelled at me for drawing them. All in all I don’t think they much noticed or cared. Maybe, if I’m up to it I’ll post the sketches I made on Monday.

Interesting Jurors: There was this woman who wore a face mask. Why? I don’t know? She definitely freaked me out. Maybe it was a clever attempt at coming up with a ploy not to be selected to serve on a jury, if so, it was good. I felt uncomfortable sitting around her. I’m sure she would make anyone who’s case she sat on feel very apprehensive about her. Was she physically sick or mentally insane? It was kind of hard to tell. However, I never heard her cough once.

Most interesting sight during my lunch break was this black senior citizen sitting at a table in front of Au Bon Pain. He was neatly dressed in a blue pinstriped long sleeved shirt with a tie and blue slacks. He wore a Panama hat and had gray hair and beard with a guitar slung across his back. He was sitting across from this man at another table and they were talking about God. It was a very surreal scene. How many times do you see a well dressed senior citizen with a guitar talking about God with a business man?

Also there was this guy standing in front of Au Bon Pain I thought for a while that maybe he was a security guard for the store. Then I thought that was silly. Who ever heard of security guard for a bakery place? I started to sketch him then he walked away after standing stationary at the door of the store for a good 10-15 minutes. I have no idea what his story was. However, he seemed suspicious of something...

Today, I wore a cream colored brown/red/blue print broomstick skirt along with an ecru colored crocheted top. Along with this ensemble I wore my new $3.00 black tennis shoes that I bought Friday from Walmart.