Jury summons...

first of all I have to say yeah!!!! I did not get picked today! I really was hoping I wouldn't since its the last week of school and the kids have two early dismissal days. Anyway, here is how my day went.

I didn't have to be there until 12:30. So, after talking to Kristy and figuring out where to go and how long it would take I left the house around 11:30 this morning. When I pulled into the parking lot there were already a LOT of people waiting for the bus. I parked and got in line with all the other sorry suckers that had gotten a summons. Just a few minutes had passed when a bus pulled up. Loaded to capacity...needless to say not everyone got on including me. Then it just sat there forever making this horrible alarm sound. After about 5 or 10 minutes the driver got off. She said something had broke. Some air thing to do with brakes or something. Whatever it was it wouldn't let her bus go! I don't know how long after that another bus showed up. Well most of the people that were on the first bus got on that one and maybe a few others. Needless to say I was STILL not on a bus. So, I continued to wait with the others for a bus. Finally, one showed and I think the rest of us squeezed onto that bus.

Arrived at the stop. Walked two blocks. Keep in mind I'm just following everyone else. Hoping everyone else is going to the same place I am! Had to go through security! Yes, this involves taking shoes and everything off! I left my bracelet on figuring my cheap jewelry was all plastic or something. Well, it wasn't. I set that thing off. Gave my bracelet to the security dude to hold and went through again with flying colors!

Walked in a room that had tons of people. When you see that the room is going to be filled to capacity why do people skip seats? Why doesn't everyone scoot to the center? Why do you refuse to move over and make everyone climb over you? Found a seat and sat down. I don't know what time the thing finally started going but it did.

The jury bailiff made it sound as if everyone would be assigned to a courtroom. She said they'd assigned over 650 people that morning. She did tell us all the courts we were going to be assigned to would not be meeting til tomorrow morning. So, I'm already thinking...I'm stuck for two days! Once she got through all the people with disqualifications and exemptions she started. She did one group of 60 people first. They had to sit and complete a questionnaire and were assigned a court. Then she did another group of 60 people that had to also complete a questionnaire and get assigned a court. She then called a group of 18 that were assigned a court and released. After quite a while she announced that no one had to be held over (I guess they hold extras if needed, but no courts had requested it). She said the rest of us were being dismissed! YEAH!!!!!

It wasn't as horrible as I thought. Of course, it probably would've been worse if I'd been chosen. They were very informative about what was going to happen, they gave instructions several times for what they were going over, told you how to get back to the buses and the parking lot, made sure you wrote down court assignments and stuff. At least if I ever have to do it again I've been that far through the process!