Wasted time

Jury duty this morning was a bust. I arrived a few minutes early, and thank goodness I did, because magistrate court was no longer in the same location as last time. They sent me to the older federal building across the street. After driving over there, struggling to find parking (I ended up having to use a nearby parking garage) and finally arriving, hot and sweaty, the security guy stopped me at the door and told me I was in the wrong place......AGAIN. He told me to walk back outside and the correct building would be on my left. 

So I walked out and turned to the left and there was....nothing there. Frustrated, I saw a city maintenance worker and asked him where I was supposed to be, and it turns out the last guy should have told me to take a right, then a left. Damn it! More walking...

Once I got to the right place (finally!) the security lady at the door stopped me and told me I'd have to take my purse back to my car and leave it there. Apparently, handbags of any kind are no longer allowed in the courtroom. It seems like a ridiculous rule to me, considering that you have to go through metal/weapon detectors either way. Besides that, there was nothing in the jury summons that mentioned the new rule. But the security person was adamant, so I had no choice but to traipse back to the parking garage, lock up my purse, and then walk back again. By this time, I was so sweaty I could almost wring the moisture out of my hair. I was also 10 minutes late. Needless to say, I was not a happy camper!

All that trouble, and after a half hour or so the judge came out and said that all the cases in front of him had just been settled, and that we were free to go. 

Arghh!!!

Of course I'm glad I don't have jury duty after all, but it sure felt like a huge waste of my time, and a giant hassle. At least it was still early, not quite 10:00, and I had the day off in front of me. I called my friend Paulette (she's retired) and asked if she'd like to meet up for a cup of coffee. She invited me over to her house for coffee instead, and I went and we passed a couple of pleasant hours chatting. The morning ended better than it began.

This was the second time I've been pulled for jury duty recently. The first time (back in May, I think) the clerk of court called the Friday before and told me court was canceled the next week. This time, the cases got settled before a jury needed to be picked. I sincerely hope they'll take my name out of rotation for a good long while, now! Enough is enough!

Best first day ever

Yesterday morning I got up early, showered, dressed, and, like a good citizen, showed up early for jury duty. We have a new courthouse in Florence County and it's quite nice, especially the landscaping. A whole bunch of young crepe myrtle trees have been planted. The flowers are the exact same shade of pale lavender as the ones in my yard.

I'm fairly comfortable in a courthouse setting thanks to my two years of serving as a Guardian Ad Litem for kids in foster care. I enjoy hearing how the different judges run their courts. They're almost always old white guys who love to hear themselves talk, but usually  they've had a patina of kindness, humor, and dignity about them. The judge yesterday fit that pattern. 

To begin with all the potential jurors stood up and gave their place of employment and position, marital status, and spouse's occupation. Several of us worked in the medical field in some capacity; Florence has two major hospital systems that provide thousands of jobs. After we were done the judge made a little speech thanking everyone who worked in the medical field in whatever capacity for their hard work, risk, and sacrifices over the past year. Then he said how worrying the Delta variant of Covid is, and how "South Carolina isn't doing the right thing to help bring an end to this pandemic". I was so excited that he was basically promoting vaccines from the bench! (We were all issued N-95 masks upon arrival and expected to wear them the whole time). Then later he started talking about jury responsibilities, and how no one really likes jury duty, but "in my experience South Carolinians are cheerful about doing their civic duty. I've often thought, that as one of the original 13 colonies, we have a great deal of respect for the English court system that we adopted from the beginning. With all it's faults, it's still the greatest system of justice that has ever been invented." 

Whew. Well. Moving on.  

I wasn't picked for the jury. We were all issued temporary debit cards where I'll be paid for my one day of service and also for my mileage. Altogether I think I'll make about $10 or so. 

Ah, well. It was still better than going back to work on the first day. Instead, midafternoon I went to Marian's house and went swimming.

BEST FIRST DAY EVER!

And when I got to work today for my actual first day this year, a couple of the other office people said, "Thank god you're back! We couldn't get anything done yesterday for answering the phone and dealing with visitors at the front door! We were going to come kidnap you if you didn't show up today!"

Knowing they had to do my job all day yesterday was almost as sweet as the cool, cool water of the pool I was swimming in while they did it.