jury duty 101

I was called for jury duty for the first time this week. It was really an overall good experience but I had no idea what all went into this! I had to find a sitter for Reese all week of course but didn't realized that I would need before school sitters for the other two! I had to be there at 8:30 which sounded nice but with the snow this week, that meant leaving at 7:30! Yikes! Jon very graciously stayed home a couple mornings to help me out! I also needed a place for the kids each day after school if I was selected for the jury. I thought this wouldn't be too bad! Boy was I wrong!

I should have checked the dates better b/c my mother in law and sister in law are both traveling this week. My mom could watch my kids when she wasn't teaching so at least a couple of days were covered. If it were another week, it would have gone a lot more smoothly! I ended up asking a lot of favors from people and got everything covered.

I didn't have to go in on Monday which was a complete Godsend. I still did my shift at Meadows but at least had some time to recover from the weekend. Then Tuesday I was summoned and ended up getting sent home. Wednesday I was not quite so lucky. I was hoping that since I was questioned all about Jon's grandpa who is a former judge, that they would let me go. No such luck. I was selected. I thought I would have to go back down on Thursday to finish the trial. NOPE!!! They kept us there until 6:30!!! Mind you, they took all electronics STAT when you are selected so I couldn't let anyone know I was stuck! The bailiff let me use his phone to call Jon at supper time to tell him to go p/u the kids at least. I didn't even know they could do that!! I thought we would be able to go when the court house closed at 5:00pm. NOPE!! One ladies trial lasted until 10:00 at night. I guess sometimes you are there until the bitter end! I thought maybe they were doing some sort of social experiment to see how soon we would go crazy or something. (ok that might be a bit dramatic but I felt like a caged rat!!) I finally got out and was really thankful for the experience despite the time issue. It really is quite an interesting process. I was SOOOOO thankful to see I didn't have to go in on Thursday but, alas, I was again there today! ARG!!! The cased ended up dropped or plea bargained or something b/c we didn't have to go through selection again. We were released!

I would definitely do it again. I know it is my responsibility. BUT, next time I will make sure that my family is around that week before I agree to it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

****THANK you a million times to those of you who helped me out with babysitting this week! I owe you BIG TIME!!!