Jury Duty

It's the 4th of July and what greater way to celebrate American pride than with jury duty. I was summoned to be on call for jury service for the last week. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday dismissed... and just when I thought I was off the hook, I was told to report on Friday. They asked me to park at the Walt Disney Concert Hall and, let me tell you, what a gorgeous place. Then, I walked about 5 minutes down to the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center at Temple and Broadway.

As soon as I arrived, within 30 minutes I was called to the first panel of jurors. We were then taken to a small courtroom where the judge, the prosecuting attorney and the defending attorney presented the case and questioned whether we could be impartial as jurors. My oh my, the excuses people gave to get out of jury service.

Finally, as they "weeded" people out one by one, I was one of the last three people selected for this jury of 14 as one of two alternates. Apparently it took 1.5 days to finally select everyone. My co-workers have expressed difficulty ever being dismissed at this stage despite their attire, demeanor, and excuses. Let's face it... registered nurses are liked by all.

We got an hour and half lunch break, and I devoured a sesame chicken bowl while watching the Ghana vs Uruguay game.

It looks like the case will extend into next week and luckily my employer pays for up to 5 days of missed shifts. Working night shifts means I get both the night before and the night of the day fully paid for. Yippee! Six hours of jury duty beats 24 hours of night-shift work any day.