Ten Little Words Never Sounded Sooo Good.

"All second week jurors are now released from jury duty."

I have my life back!

Who wants to celebrate?

Quiz

WAAAAAHH!! You're inner Bombshell is the zany
Lucille Ball! You like making people laugh, but
also know how to turn on the glamour when the
time is right. To most guys you're the perfect
all-around gal. But sometimes you get into
trouble and have a heckuva time talking your
way out of it. You may be accident-prone on the
outside, but your a first class business woman
on the inside. A pioneer, so to say. Lucy can
still be seen hamming it up on her most famous
television series "I Love Lucy".


Who is your inner bombshell?
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Jury Duty - Day Two

I dropped Noah off at the neighbor's house at 8:30 AM. Actually, both Stan and I walked him there but Stan chickened out and split when Noah started saying he wanted to go home. So I had to leave the crying child, whose tears were ripping my heart out, and walk back in the frozen wasteland myself.

I sat in the jury room from 9 AM to 12 PM. Had lunch with Momma Reade at HCMC and then sat from 1:30 - 3:30 when they finally let us go home. Only 6 jurors were pulled from the pool of (I'm guessing) 50 people. You would think the government would find something useful for us to do when we're waiting. Like assembly line work. Really. Anything would be better than the bordeom of waiting. I am free until Monday. They will get a new batch of jurors that day so I am now, officially, on the second string team. I hope this means I won't get called in. Just my luck I'll get called in on the last day and put on a case that lasts FOREVER. . .

In summation, civic duty bites.

Jury Duty - Day One

Today I was called in for jury duty. I had to report at 1:30 PM. I endured orientation, which was only a woman speaking vs. the horrid movie they used to show. Most of the time I could zone out and read through it since some of the people in there had heard it before and you didn't have to pretend to pay attention. Two hours later they told me I could go home. The two judges that had said they needed juries settled the cases before the jurors were called to the courtroom.

What does this mean for me? It means that from 9:00 AM on tomorrow I am a bitch of the court. I may or may not be assigned to a case tomorrow. If I am, I am at the mercy of the judge and however long the case lasts. If I am not assigned to a case by 4:30 on Friday, I am again on call in status which means that my life is in flux, yet again.

It also means that my son is going to spend 8 + hours with a neighbor tomorrow and Friday. Something he has never had to do. So it sucks for both of us, but probably more for him. At 3 he does not understand that I can't control the world and be there when he wants me to. And of course, I will desperately miss him too.

Jury Freaking Duty

My first day on call for Jury Duty was great. That is, I didn't have to go in. The drill goes like this:

STEP ONE
6:30 PM I call in to find out if I have to be in at 9:00 AM the next day. If I don't I go to step 2:
STEP TWO
12:15 PM I call in to find out if I have to be in at 1:30 the same day.

So I didn't have to go in today and I don't have to go in tomorrow morning. But they did call the two groups before me to come in so I have a feeling I'll be in the basement of the Hennepin County Courthouse before the week is out.

This is the second time I've been called for jury duty. So many people I know have never been called in for jury duty. Why? It's not fair. You'd think they could run through everybody once and then start back at the beginning if they run out. But could the government really be that together? This amusing tidbit I read today answered the question for me.

TWO YEAR OLD CALLED IN FOR JURY DUTY

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. - Kaylee Reynolds had a problem when she recently received a summons to serve on a jury. She wasn't old enough to read it.

The 2-year-old has quite a few years to go before she reaches the minimum age of 18 to serve on a state jury. Lucky for Kaylee, Massachusetts Jury Commissioner Patricia Reynolds seemed willing to let it slide for a while.

"We'll give her a 16-year grace period," Wood told The Standard-Times of New Bedford.

Wood guessed the mix-up could be traced to a local census form. If the form has a blank or mistaken birth date, July 4, 1776 is filled in.

"With that date we'll know it is wrong," Wood said.

Besides her questionable understanding of the concepts of guilt or innocence, there are other reasons why it's best to wait for Kaylee to serve. Her mother, Patricia, says Kaylee gets really cranky if she doesn't get her noontime nap.

Love is in the air. . . no wait, that's glass.

We've been here almost 5 years and have had our car broken into 3 times. Last night I got home from the store and not even 15 minutes later there was a knock on the door from our neighbor alerting us to our broken car window.

Damn stupid hoodlums! I admit that in high school I didn't know about insurance premiums or guess how much a broken car window could fuck up your schedule. But I still didn't break car windows. Instead I chucked glass bottles at retaining walls by the railroad tracks. All the satisfying glass explosions you want with no destruction of property or risk of jail time.

We're out $200. All contributions to the Keathly Window Replacement Fund are welcome!

Escapism

There is nothing like a good book with an excellent glass of wine to take the edge off of life. Mine doesn't suck in the "Katrina took my home and kids" kind of way, but I am sure as hell not living la vida loca either. So there are times that I take in the simple pleasures of life. And just look how happy it makes me:

In the picture I'm reading "The Bean Trees." I am too lazy to look up the author, but it was a good book. I also read "The Handmaidens Tale" by Margaret Atwood this week. What an amazing book! It is written in the early 1980's but shows what would happen if George Bush Jr. really did take over the U.S.A. Creepy. As in HOLY VERY OH MY GOD CREEPY.

Here's a partial description:
"In the Republic of Gilead, formerly the United States, far-right Schlafly/Falwell-type ideals have been carried to extremes in the monotheocratic government. The resulting society is a feminist's nightmare: women are strictly controlled, unable to have jobs or money and assigned to various classes: the chaste, childless Wives; the housekeeping Marthas; and the reproductive Handmaids, who turn their offspring over to the "morally fit" Wives. The tale is told by Offred (read: "of Fred"), a Handmaid who recalls the past and tells how the chilling society came to be.'

If you haven't read it, I highly recommend that you do. If anything it reminds us that, indeed, we do need to fight, for our right, to paaar-tay!

And in other news. . .

Noah may not be allowed to wear a pink Hello Kitty T-shirt to bed, but his big brother Jesse sure looks alluring in a pink and white fuzzy scarf. And from what I've heard through the bathroom vent, he's 100% NOT GAY.

What's up pussycat?

Poutums

It's a hard knock life for a 3 year old. At leaast that's what Noah tells me. He has this pouting thing down to a science. We usually tease him out of it or just wait, pretending patience. At least he looks cute when he's pouting. Observe:

"Poutums"