A Jury With No Duty And Goodbyes
So last week was quite a week, it costs me time, a tooth, and approximately $190. Among other things, it cost me a proper enjoyment of an otherwise awesome Reuben sandwich and a chance to attend a street fair I wanted to go to.
My tooth has been hurting for a while, I was hoping it’d eventually go away. It happened so quickly, only recently have I added two new things to my diet that I thought could have caused this. Jarritos, a soda made in Mexico and Big Red, the bubble gum. I figured since I only have 3 slices of Big Red that it wasn’t that. I thought it must have been those evil Mexicans ruining my teeth their…their awesome addictive refresco. So I stopped drinking Jarritos for a while and the pain didn’t go away so I just scheduled a dentist appointment. When I go there to get the tooth checked out, they recommended I extract it. I just wanted the pain to stop, so I agreed. The tooth is the last tooth in the far back of my mouth. The added benefit is that the way my teeth are aligned, that tooth doesn’t touch a bottom tooth, doesn’t even feel like I’m missing anything. Glad that’s taken care of and the pain is gone.
Also last week I went to Jury Duty. Because I have strong views that the government works for me, and I shouldn’t have to do what it says, I planned on being late to Jury Duty orientation. Unfortunately I meant to be like 5 minutes late, not a half hour late. But luckily another guy was late. We waited outside the farmer’s market for the free shuttle bus.
When the bus finally arrived, him and the bus driver yapped about how and why he was late. I really didn’t care. When we got in the court house, it was taking forever just to get an elevator. The elevators quickly packed with people, me and the other guy decided we’d wait for a less crowded elevator. When we finally did get our own elevator, it went down instead of up and then when going back up it stopped on the 1st floor and more people packed into the elevator. Talk about needing personal space….
When we walked into the orientation, the judge came in and was talking. Unfortunately it was the end of the speech *thank god* cause I didn’t want to sit through a long boring speech. After his speech they made us watch a video circa 1980s. There were shoulder pads all up and through that video! haha! When it was over, the nearly 150 of us were forced to stay in the room and watch TV. Thankfully, I brought my netbook and played with the lovely people on Twitter.
Eventually we were allowed to leave for lunch. I had no idea where I was going. It just seemed like a smart move at the time to follow where other jury duty prisoners were going. Eventually I ended up an a Coney Island. Another prisoner (of Jury Duty) asked if I wanted to share a table with her. Of course, since it’s more awkward to eat alone, I said yes. I felt weird though when ordering, I just typically don’t like coney island foods so I ordered a cheese burger by default, while she ordered something vegetarian. Anyways, we chatted about our jobs and what jury duty might be like if we are chosen to serve on a trial. That’s actually the first time I had a random lunch and could talk for a long time like a normal human being with a complete stranger.
Coming back to the courtroom she said she had to breast pump *cringe*. Thankfully the courthouse has a room specifically designed for breast pumping people. When going back to my seat they started to call juror’s service numbers. At around 2pm the lady over the speaker says, people’s whose last names end M through Z can leave and don’t have to serve jury duty. I was thinking, Oh sh*t I have to stay in this evil place. Then another lady says, “Don’t worry, also people’s last names ending A through L are also dismissed”. I was SOOOOoooo HAPPY! and so was everyone else. So in the end, I didn’t have to serve on a jury. Happy, happy joy, joy, happy happy 
Also, because of my tooth pain and the maintenance afterwards, I was going to stay home from work but the lab grad student talked me in to coming to lunch with some of the other lab members. Our lab chemist is leaving us FOREVER! His wife got a job in NY and so he’s moving there. It’s very sad. He was the most helpful to me especially in chemistry. Anyways, I was rather sad and I’m more sad to see what new strange people will be coming into the lab.
Oh so why did this week cost me approximately $190. One day missed from work for Jury Duty. Had to leave early for a dentist appointment. Then spent the whole, next, day off recovering. But in the end, I didn’t have to serve on a trial and I have no more tooth pain. Now this blog post is getting pretty long so I should call it quits. Toodles
