civic duties

i'm the weird bird that hates to miss work- mostly b/c it means i'll come back to a shitstorm of work when i finally do make it back. that and i believe my pops instilled just a little bit of his work-acoholicism onto me.

needless to say i was not looking forward to jury duty the week of thanksgiving. worst case scenario- i'd be selected for a criminal case, be sequestered, and have to spend my thanksgiving vacation in court. best case scenario- i'd miss a day of work and have to forgo my halfday and catch up on emails and vendor requests.

in the end- i lucked out and ended up enoying two days off of work. i did a lot of reading and was interviewed for a spot on the "back up" jury. it was an interesting assessment process.

i arrived at 8:45, by 9am, the waiting room was mostly full. one of the attendants turned on a cheesy film featuring a young diane sawyer about the importance of the jury and fulfilling one's civic duty. two hours of waiting. fire drill where we all filed out into the hallway before being asked to return to our seats. another half hour of waiting. FINALLY, my name is one of twelve to be called for jury selection.

all the interviewees filled out a form. we were released for an hour lunch break so the lawyers could review our profiles before reconvening. the plantiff's lawyer introduced the case of an individual who was suing the city of new york for negligence after slipping in the snow. then, the plantiff questioned us all one by one. next the defendant's (the city of new york) lawyer gave a rebuttal type speech and did his rounds of questioning.

i guess i should have known it was a done deal when i said that i thought that americans are too litigious and that individuals need to take more personal responsiblity?