Today's Thrilling Adventure: Jury Duty

What fun. I spent most of the day waiting in various limbo-like (see post below) jury and court rooms, waiting to be "called" (along with a group of other bored and/or grumpy people) and then, when called, waiting while the judges conducted their "voir dire" interviews with each potential juror--one by one. It's such an inefficient process. Since they essentially ask each person the same questions, why not have everyone fill out a questionnaire, then look through the questionnaires, ask a few additional questions if necessary, and then check off who's on the jury and who isn't? Luckily, I wasn't selected for any juries, due to my self-employment. ("Yes, serving on a five-week trial would be a bit of an economic hardship, your honor . . .") They could have asked me if I was self-employed ahead of time, of course, and saved everyone some inconvenience, but that wouldn't be nonsensical enough.

The best part of the day was being sent over to the "old" courthouse for one of the voir dires. The building is beautiful--one of those Roman temple wedding cakes with marble columns. The interior had lots of stained glass--including an incredibly intricate skylight--dramatic staircases, murals depicting historic scenes, and lots of woodwork and marble. No fluorescent lights. I really felt like I was in court there. The "new" (early 1960s?) courthouse is one of those featureless steel-and-glass boxes. The interior of the jury room looked like a welfare office, except for the church-like wooden pews everyone sat on.

The good news is that I don't have to report tomorrow--my service is complete, according the message on the courthouse phone. (What a sense of civic satisfaction that gives me!) The bad news is that I think I left my cell phone in the jury room, and I'll have to go down there again anyway to pick it up (if they found it). Sigh.