Civic Duty

So guess where I have been ALL week? Can anyone say JURY DUTY!? Come on, say it. Oh! Yeah, juggle the kids around and find someone to take them to school...great! found my good ol' brother...oh, wait. Logan doesn't feel good..."what's wrong buddy?" "My tummy hurts." "You don't want to go to school with your cousins today" "No."


Ummm, for those of you that don't know.....he BEGS me almost daily to go play with them. So this is unheard of for him to say no.....



Great, lets call Grandma. Grandma could be classified as a saint...for real...she cancelled her appointments with her clients to come and sit with Logan AND she played about 8 games of Candyland with him...sainthood her she comes.




So I was finally off to the courthouse. If you ever think about going downtown...don't. The only reason I EVER go downtown anymore is for baseball games....Go Grizzlies!.....anyhoo. I get parked in the underground parking....my claustrophobia sets in....run up the stairs....ahhhh daylight....see homeless guy playing the flute and the poor guy is awful, so sad...go to the jury room...."Um am I in the right place?" "No, go get your car, park in the FREE juror parking lot six blocks the other direction, get on the trolley, get off at the second stop. You need to be in civil court."



Now, at this point all I want to do is go back to bed and try to start my day again. Anyway, I go back to the underground parking....the homeless, awful flute player is still playing and note collecting any tips....the claustrophobia sets in...I speed out of there (thank goodness I was parked less than fifteen minutes or I would have had to pay $3. Yeah, $3 for anything over fifteen minutes, $9 if you stay longer than 2 hours, ridiculous!) I make it over to the FREE parking lot and I make it to the trolley. I get on the trolley with a guy who thinks he needs to educate me about the swine flu. Really. Then there was a lady who drove all the way from Reedley and said she was going to get in trouble with the judge cause she is late. Here I am almost 45 minutes late and I am thinking, uh oh. Well, thankfully the bird flu guy got off on the first stop (remember I am getting off on stop #2). Myself and the Reedley gal got off the trolley at our designated stop #2 and proceed to walk across the street and into the court where of course there is a metal detector. Do I make it through? Fat chance. "Mam do you have any belts on?" "No" "We are going to have use the wand on you" "Excuse me?" "To see if you are wearing any weapons"



Now if you had seen what I was wearing you would have thought "no way." But they get out the wand. Apparently my bracelet is made of stainless steel. Who knew?



I made it to the jury room. Late. Orientation is over. All orientations are the same. No big deal right? Orientation is important later....stay tuned....Anyway, I text a few people who are going to help pick up Grace from school. I text the husband and let him know what's going on with Logan and then the Judge comes in.




He explains something about a questionnaire...blah, blah, blah....the clerk passes them out and we are supposed to fill them out....who you know, how you feel about the judicial system, basic stuff....after you turn it in you are free to go for the day, but be back at 9am SHARP. Wonder if he has ever road the trolley system? I digress....I fill out the questionnaire, trying not to laugh at some of the questions. Finally get to the last page and woohoo....I am done. Out the door I go and back to the trolley stop, get picked up, get dropped off....In the car, making phone calls and checking on Logan with Grandma..."he's fine," she says. Parking attendant asks for my jury pass, don't have one, get lectured about how I should know that's how they validate parking for jurors and that's why I should pay attention during the "ORIENTATION!" So, instead of barking back at him about how I am just trying to do my "civic duty," I stay tight lipped and try not to blow a gasket.




Home at last, I pick up Logan and take him to work....he seems fine....work was C.R.A.Z.Y. busy. Although, it's like that a lot! Which is a good thing, I know.





Back at court the next day: I loathe the trolley. That's all I am gonna say about that. I wore pants. The day before I wore capri pants and a blouse, oh yeah, and the stainless steel bracelet. Anyway, I don't make it through the metal detector again. Seriously. Then they make me lift my pant legs to make sure I don't have a knife or ankle gun. Really. I am wearing sandals. (Good ol' Cali weather) You can laugh here, but as I walk through the detector and pull up my pant leg the other officers are laughing at me. Apparently they thought it was funny that the "new" guy thought I was suspicious looking enough to warrant a pant leg check. Ha Ha very funny guys.





Back in the jury room. Roll call. Please rise. Enter: the Judge. He proceeds to have everyone sit and then asks if there is anyone who wants to be excused for a hardship. Hardship...does not having a babysitter qualify? Can't hurt to ask, right? So I raise my hand along with about 20 other people. He takes us into the jury deliberation room and one by one we get to lay out our excuses for him....luckily, I was the second wanna ditch jury duty loser person. I plead my case and felt kinda weird cause I felt like he was gonna yell at me that I was a liar and trying to avoid my civic duty. But, he was calm cool and collected and appreciated my situation and told me that I would be dismissed but would like me on one of his summer jury's.....So line up the babysitter. Wow! Can he do that....time will tell....



So for the record, uhemmmm......this is how my plea went...."Judge. You said yourself that this if going to be somewhat of a lengthy trial and probably 6 weeks or so long. I could probably juggle my kids for about 2 weeks to different friends and family members, but not for 6 weeks. My husband works out of town A LOT."



His response that I mentioned earlier was not what I was expecting, but YAYHOO! I got dismissed.



So off to work I went. Not paying attention to what day of the week it is. THIS PART EITHER WILL MAKE YOU LAUGH OR GASP.....maybe both....I had told my kids that if I got out of court early I would be picking them up from school, if I didn't I would have either Grandma, Auntie Meg, Kristin or Laurie pick them up. So again remember I forgot what day of the week it was and mind you Wednesdays are early release day at their school. (I have a total beef with early release days, but I will save that for some other time.) Sooooooo you can probably guess what happened....yep! I forgot to pick up my kids early! I was truly working along, getting a ton of stuff done and my cell phone rings and it's my dear, sweet friend Laurie....."Ummm is everything ok? Your daughters teacher called me and asked where you were and if I am picking up your kids!"



I DIED!!! What a great loser mom moment I had.....correction loser mom week!



Needless to say she was kind enough to take my kids to her house and I picked them up from there. But my day was far from over. Baseball and Soccer all in one night coming up.



Now, remember I said Logan had an upset tummy on Tuesday. Baseball is Wednesday (note to self: Wednesday is also early release from school) and he said he wasn't sure he wanted to go....here I go, workin' on "mom of the year"....I load him up with some Pepto and tell him he has to go to either to baseball or go sit with me out at his sisters soccer practice.....nice, huh? Anyway....off to baseball he went and I told his coach (who also happens to be a family friend) that he wasn't feeling well and that if he doesn't want to play for him to call me and I would come pick him up. He had the best game ever.....and, I missed it. Karma? Maybe, if I believed in it. Long story short, I took him to the doc on Thursday, just to be sure his cough and tummy ache wasn't too concerning.....Doc said he needs an inhaler. Hmm. Short term. Hmm. Just until he gets over his BRONCHIAL IRRITATION. Hmm. Mom of the Century....here I come.



Did I mention that I forgot to go to my daughters Honor Roll award ceremony on Monday?........How about how my friends find it hilarious to tease me, relentlessly I might add, about me forgetting to pick up my kids?......they knocked on my car door window this morning and said, " hey don't forget what time the kids get out of school today, looks like rain." Roaring laughter. Nice. They love me. I think.

All of this chaos ensued over my schedule being disrupted because of my Civic Duty......

It's Friday, and I have never been one to celebrate TGIF....but, seriously.......T.G.I.F.