I had jury duty this week, and until this morning I didn't have to report. When I found out I had to report today, I was initially kind of dispirited (especially since jury duty starts at 8:30 am and I usually wake up around 3pm) but I actually got excited about the prospect when I started packing my activity bag.
I've only had jury duty once before, and I spent about three hours in the jury pool room reading before being shuffled off into a courtroom for about 45 minutes. So the idea of three hours of me-time again sounded kind of nice... I packed my sketchbook, pens, pencils, Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger, Now Playing, a notebook and some cereal and water. I was all set!
I arrived at the jury pool room, unpacked my little bag, started drawing an Eloise and Ramona sketch and then... not even five minutes had passed before we got called into court. Ugh!
I've always wanted to be on a jury (I have visions of grandeur -- I often dream of Henry Fonda in 12 Angry Men the whole week I have jury duty) but the actual process of jury selection is excruciating! Most of the courtroom activity was done in sidebar, where the lawyers & the judge would whisper so that nobody could hear them, so there was nothing interesting to listen to. And the "look at me in my cool police suit" guard standing almost right next to me seemed like the type to issue a contempt of court fine if I whipped out the sketchbook.
So I just sat. and sat. and sat. and sat.
and sat.
Until FINALLY four hours later I was excused. Whew! In the meantime, I did have a one hour lunch at which point I drew this little doodle of Emma *my alter-ego* falling asleep during jury duty. I wish...
