Thursday, November 15, 2007

Jury Duty Yesterday...

Well Jury Duty went quick. I arrived about 8:50 am. Went through the metal detectors setting them off with my shoes...lifting my pant legs got me by. I went to the right heading down a long hallway and entered the room. To my surprise it was all redone since my last bout with jury duty. Last time it was a poorly lit room full of those cold metal chairs, in rows going straight back. There was a little spot in the back with a pay phone and water fountain. You weren't allowed to bring anything but your purse and a book. Someone would come in and call numbers. You didn't see anyone till they did. This time I walked in and the room was nicely lit. Women were there to sign you in and hand out paperwork. There were cushioned chairs (the backs too) set up like a doctors office against the walls in a few rows with TVs in the center of the chairs. There were about 2 sections like this. There also were end tables and regular tables to sit at. They had Wi-Fi, 2 computers with Internet, blood pressure machines, a section where you could get Cd's (some books and some music) form a machine and borrow CD players from the women who signed you in, vending machine's, and a library section stocked with books and magazines.There were people all around me with their laptops, PSP players, MP3 players, and game boys. I wish I had gotten the memo letting me know we could bring these items in. There even was a woman behind me who had brought a bunch of scrap booking items (minus anything to cut with) and was making pages! About 9:10 am the Commissioner of Jurors came in and announced how our day would go. Then one of the judges came out thanking us for coming. She announced it was Juror Appreciation Week. We all got pens, wooden gavel key chains, a pocket calendar and the coffee, cappuccino and hot chocolate vending machine was on for free! From there we all watched a Jury Duty documentary with Diane Sawyer on the TVs. Then they asked for the sheets we filled out on employment and where to mail the checks. Then they came out and called 30 names to hand in their questionnaires that the lawyers get to go over before they come in for questioning. This was at 9:30 am. Then at 10:30 am they had all these people line up in a line and head on into the jury selection room. About 30 minutes later we saw some of those people leave. During all this I was reading, talking on my cell or watching CNN on the TVs. I finally got up at 11:30 am to get some hot chocolate. I drank the foam off the top and set it down to cool. At 11:45 am they started calling names again. My name was included. We all were confused because last time they just collected the questionnaires first but she told us all to go right in the room. We all sat down and she announced we all were done for 8 years and we could go home. She explained that they called in too many people for the day, pulled some names and we all got to go. We got a certificate of appreciation, a paper saying what date we served and shoved out the door...lol! I was home by 12:15 pm! $40 for 3 hours of sitting and catching up on my reading...that's a good deal.