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April 17, 2013 - 10:38 p.m.
"jury duty extravaganza"

Hey Journal!

So today I had to face the most dreaded activity of them all... JURY DUTY!! I had gotten my summons in the mail a few weeks ago and I was not looking forward to this week of having to call to see if I had to actually report to the court! I had gotten Jury Duty once in the past, but I only had to call in and my number never came up, so I never had to go in.

I got up at the usual time I get up for work and headed out to Riverhead. What a LONG drive! It was ridiculous. I arrived and found the parking lot. I had a few minutes to kill before heading inside so I took the time to fix a problem I had been having with my car radio. You may remember that a couple of years ago I got a wire that plugs into the back of the deck and is routed through the glove compartment and it lets me hook my phone directly to the car to listen to podcasts and originally, The Chris Moyles Show.

Anyway, recently that wire has gone on the fritz and was causing a loud buzzing noise in the speakers and driving me CRAZY! So, I ordered another wire online and it came a couple of days ago, but I didn't have time to put it in. While I was sitting there with nothing to do, I popped out the radio, installed the new wire, and now the problem is solved! Woo Hoo!

When I was finished with that, I headed inside.

I had to go through the metal detector and the lady helped me was really nice. I set the thing off with my seatbelt belt, and when I took it off... she seemed to really like it.

I went inside the Jury Room which was inside two very large double doors. Once inside, you can tell that people usually have a hard time figuring out where to go because they have signs all over the place. I had to take a Questionnaire and some New York State Census paper and fill them out.

At about 9:20 or so they called everyone up to hand in their papers. We all lined up and it was a pretty quick process.

One observation is that they really don't give much detail about what's going on. From time to time, some officer guy came in and collected people, but they were definitely people who were there yesterday, and he seemed to remember all of them. You could tell first-day people like myself were all confused as to what was going on.

Then, at about 10:30, the first group of new jurors were called. The guy at the front read off a list of about 30 names, and they all lined up and went into the back room. I wasn't called.

I just sat there on my phone watching the TVs. The TVs all had CNN on, and they were covering the Boston Marathon stuff. For most of the morning, Don Lemon stood there waving around the lid to a pressure cooker, and there was only so much of that I could watch! Whenever the man made an announcement on the microphone, the TVs would go to this weird Windows XP display which had some sort of controls for the TV channels. It was weird.

Then he announced that they were short on Jurors for the rest of the week and if anyone would like to volunteer to come back tomorrow at 10am, they could leave no for the day. I didn't think this offer made any sense because if I had left, I would have definitely had to come back tomorrow. At least this way I could have a chance of not getting called at all and getting away scott free!

Alas, I sat there until 12:00 when he announced that we would be having a lunch break until 2pm! Oh good, a two hour lunch, just what I needed! The whole thing was such a waste of time. If they are only going to call 30 people before 2pm out of the approximately 150 people who came, why not just have half of them come at 9 and half come at 2! UGH!

I went out to my car and drove to Panera. I got the Pasta Bolognese for lunch. It's a new thing they're trying out.... which means it will probably eventually go the way of the flatbread pizza they experimented with years ago! My feelings on it were that it tasted good but it smelled FUNKY! When I first got a whiff of it I was repulsed, but I like pasta with meat sauce, so I ate it, and it did taste alright... just smelled strange!

It was a beautiful day out so I sat in my car for a while and enjoyed the warmth. I checked my messages from work and returned a few phone calls.

When I got back, I had some more time to kill before heading back inside so I sat in my car and listened to The Scott Mills Daily! The parking lot to the courthouse is next to a person's backyard, and they had a dog in a fenced in area in their yard. I didn't notice the dog until a woman in a pants suit came over and started walking through the woods in heels. She was stepping on branches and leaves and it was quite a sight. Then she started making kissy noises, so I turned the volume down on the radio and observed. She was making her way to the dog's fenced in area and was trying to pet him. So weird.

I went back inside and through security again. The security guards were talking about how stupid their scheduling is. I wouldn't be surprised if they were right, considering how stupid the jury selection system is!

I got a spot in the back of the room along the wall. I needed to use the outlet to charge my phone which was now only at about 20% battery!

The man began calling names, and he selected a group of about 30 more people who went off into the secret chamber. He then called about thirty more, and guess who they called! ME!

I was just so thrilled. I got in line, and off we went... through the secret door, down the corridors, and into room 129!

They lawyers were sitting in the front of the room and they put our juror cards into a bingo ball agitator device. They mixed them up, reached in, and selected four people! ME AGAIN!! I was second to be chosen and I was very unhappy.

Before I had left home, I decided that a good plan may be to look sick. I figured noone wants someone sneezing and hacking on a jury, so I brought tissues and cough drops to keep handy. However, everyone in the room was hacking and sneezing ALREADY!!!! It was disgusting.. and I can only hope they all had the same idea and not that they were all as infectious as they sounded!

They lawyers explained some things about the case. They said that it was a medical malpractice suit and that it involved an orthopedic surgeon. They went on to tell us some more details which I don't remember. While they were addressing the room, I tried to look distracted. I looked at the floor and the wall. I figured, they might see that and not want me on their jury because I might not pay good attention to the case! Not a bad idea...

Alas, they asked us some questions about if we had any feelings about trial lawyers, and then asked if we had any feelings about doctors or orthopedic surgeons.

Next, a lawyer to tell us more of the details about the case, and when I saw him I instantly knew that I knew him. I raised my hand slightly,and when I had his attention, I said, "I think I know you... are you a member at CS?" He said, "Yes"..."I work there!" The whole room laughed, I'm not REALLY sure why they found it so funny... but he said said "we haven't even gotten off the first tee!" and then said "You're excused... you can go back to the jury room!" And off I went! WOO HOO!!

I went to the man at the counter and he took my little slip of paper, stamped my card, and told me I was good for six years! AMAZING!!

What a crazy story! The whole day was wild! I think the entire process was completely inefficient and stupid, but it couldn't have turned out better for me! When I first saw the member from the golf course I thought "No freaking way..." and "THIS IS THE BEST THING THAT COULD EVER HAPPEN TO ME" at the same time!!

So, that was about 2:30 and I went out to my car and headed home!

I got home and got ready to go to the gym. Dan had his first softball game of the season tonight so I knew he wouldn't be home and going to the gym with me later, so I figured I'd make it an early gym day! It was pretty empty there, and I liked it.

I set ANOTHER mile record today! I was super excited! I always start going pretty fast and then have to take a break in the middle at a lower speed before returning to the high speed for the rest of the mild. If I can just find a way to push myself past that middle hump, I can have a REALLY amazing time! That's what I'm working up to!

Gym Report:
1 mile on the Treadmill in 9:15 at 7mph NEW RECORD!!!!!!
1 mile on the Treadmill in 20mins at 3mph
40 Crunches as 50lbs
2 miles on the EBike in 8mins
50 Chest Presses at 35lbs

One of the gym regulars, the one with the clear glasses was there tonight. He always does the treadmill. He's one of about 5 or 6 people that we always see there!

I headed home and it was such a beautiful day out that I decided to take a walk around the neighborhood! I walked around the street and then when I got back home I took a shower.

I watched World News, Jeopardy, and then helped Dan's dad do some things with a website he needs to overhaul for his fishing club. He got the username and password from the person who used to be handling it and I am going to spruce it up, get it in a presentable order, and then Dan's dad will take care of it. I am going to have to make some kind of content delivery system for him... but for some reason I'm up for the challenge.

Dan got home around 10:00 and he took a shower, I told him all about my crazy Jury Duty experience, and then we watched some TV!

Now it's time for bed! As much as I had no interest in going to Jury Duty today, I'm really happy with the way it turned out, and I am also really happy to have something substantial to write about in my journal! I miss the days what all kinds of craziness went on, giving me so many things to record at night!! I need more days off from work!

Anyway, it's time for ebd! Never been so happy to get back to work!

Until tomorrow...

Goodnight. :)