City Love

Last week I had the pleasure of fulfilling my civic duty and obeying the call for Jury Duty in Riverside County. Oh, what a joy. I actually don't dislike jury duty, except for the pain of interrupting work and other things that need to be done that can't because you're sitting in a dismal jury waiting room with your closest 400 friends.

I have always found the process very interesting and it's kind of "fun" (if I dare use that word) to see what other people are all about if you actually get picked on a panel and questioned by both sides. I've gone through this process twice, but have never been questioned myself. I've also never been picked to be on a jury, so my opinion might change if that ever happened.

A few highlights from the day:

Downtown Riverside is actually very beautiful and I enjoy walking around down there. Jury duty allows me this opportunity because I park in one of their assigned lots and opt to walk the 7 blocks or so rather than ride the shuttle over.

Being familiar with the Riverside jury duty process, rather than waiting in the main jury room where you're crammed in like riding coach on an airplane, I made a direct beeline to the jury waiting room where there are vending machines, puzzles, tables, magazines and old outdated books. However, I made an error in my choice of seats. Picking the furthest corner from the door where I could watch all of the random people while I pretended to read the book I brought with me, I also sat underneath the TV. This worked against me when they showed the video about how wonderful of a process our Judicial System is and how fulfilling it is to serve on a jury. I know this because they had actual testimonials from actual people who had served on a jury and felt good about their experience and wanted us to feel good, too. The volume had to be cranked up loud enough for it to reach the opposite corner of the room, so therefore I went partially deaf as I attempted to turn up my iPod's volume louder than the din of the TV. This did not work, and I still have ringing in my ears from it.

From my seat in the jury waiting room, I was approximately 6 seats away from a Mr. Robert Crank. I know this is his name because he was called to serve on a panel (as was I) and he responed "here" when that name was called. Mr. Crank had turrets. Not the kind where one cuss inappropriately or twitch - but the kind where one might grunt inexplicably. Mr. Crank was chatting with a woman he apparently knew from somewhere, and they were having a grand old time. It was hard to miss him due to the loud laughing and carrying on, but even harder to miss him because of the grunting. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against anyone with turrets. Just found it obvious that the one person in the group of us that has it would be 6 seats away from me - seems to always happen that way.

All-in-all not a bad day. I didn't get have to report to a courtroom after all, and I got to spend a two hour lunch with my sister and The Thumb AND eat at one of my favorite places, Simple Simon's.

I'm good for another 12 months. Oh wait... I won't be here anyway.