Jury Duty.....30 days to go

Monday, August 27th ......I had nothing better to do than to appear for my jury duty summons! Yes, I am aware that I could have gotten out of it with a doctors note but it would have postponed the inevitable and I cannot do anything at home. Why not spend an entire day in the courthouse reading a good book? This was going to be like a day at the spa for me.

5:45 a.m. get up to shower (it takes me a lot longer to shower and get dressed with one leg) and make myself presentable, part of me wants to be chosen. I would love to say, "I was on a jury"

6:20 a.m. Roby starts working on the children.

7:15 a.m. I leave to drop off Natalie  and Adam at a friends

7:20 a.m. Roby leaves to take Noelle and Kyle to school

7:55 a.m. IT'S TIME....I arrive at the courthouse and surprisingly I found a spot in the middle of the lot. I am confident I can crutch-hop into the courthouse. I make it in and the security card (who was profusely sweating and wiped his brow twice while I was standing there) doesn't look happy that I'm carrying medal crutches and wearing a medal brace. Thankfully, they let me hop through, setting off all the alarms, and go on my merry way. However he did say something quite interesting,..."The elevators are out of order." The middle aged lady walking behind me, instantly said to me, "Surely he was joking. I will not let them make you hop up the stairs." (We had to report to the third floor.)

My mind was now going a mile a minute. Do I: start bawling so the officer up ahead feels bad for me? Okay, I'm not a crier that is not the option I chose. Assuming I need to get up the stairs, Do I: hop up the two flights of stairs, I've done this once at home but it was one flight of stairs and I was lightly panting. Do I: sit down and do tricep dips up the two flights of stairs. I wore khaki shorts, I am going to have a very dirty bottom and my arms are going to kill me. So I do not make a decision and I continue crutch-hopping with my spokeswoman following close behind me. We make around the corner and two ladies and two officers are directing people to the stairs and yes there was a big "OUT OF ORDER" sign on the elevator. I decided I was going to start with hopping and see how far I could make it. The kind lady at the court house looked at me and asked if I was here for jury duty and I shook my head yes and it all began. "Mam, why don't you come with me and wait on this floor." and then officer said, "she can wait in courtroom 2." She took my registration forms and I sat in this courtroom all by myself.

Please remember, I am very thankful I do not have to hop up the stairs yet but I didn't ask her anything: How long will I be in here, is there a bathroom, can I really sit anywhere???? At that moment, I decided I would sit in here until noon because I was sure I was going to be forgotten about.

I sit on the first bench where the family would sit, my bad leg is resting on the bench and I realize my back is starting to hurt (it's only been 90 seconds since I was left alone). I scoot back and realize I'm sitting on duck tape. Really...I sat on a broken bench, this bench is falling apart and they use duck tape. I then picture it snapping and me falling to ground and not being to get up so I hobble myself to the next bench. It's time to relax, I pull out my book but I can't read.....I'm stuck in a court room. So I look at everything and daydream, I could have the maintenance job for this building. I don't know if I could have rebuilt the bench but neither do they, obviously, they used duct tape! Look at those tables, if only I had lemon oil. I should have brought lemon oil in my bag! This list of problems of this room continues in my mind.

8:08....I have been in this courtroom for 8 minutes and realize I'm hot. I have never really pictured myself as claustrophobic but many this room seems very small to me. So I decided, if I'm still in this room alone at 11:00, I am going to sit in the judges chair and I'm going to look in the folders on the wall by the attorney's desk. It's like a doctors office, they leave you in a room with  mysterious folders, surely they won't mind if you look at them.

In the hallway, I hear people starting to arrive and realize they are here for their court hearing and then I starting to wonder if I'm safe. This is not a day at the spa like I intended.

8:22....I hear the door start to open. To my relief, it was the lady who left me in the room. She came to tell me that I was being excused, please go home. Over the weekend, they were replacing transformers or something in the building and something went wrong. There was no air conditioning, no elevators, and no computer servers basically the lights were on. When I heard this, any and all desires to be on a jury today were gone.

Moral of the story, take crutches with you the next time you are reporting for jury duty!