Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Jury Doody

I don't know what I was thinking, but I didn't write in to get my jury duty excused being that I have a newborn and all. Anyway, it was yesterday. I unhappily got up after about three hours of sleep and made my way to the courthouse to do my civil duty or whatever it is you call it.
Did I mention that I've never been called to serve jury duty before? What are the chances that I would get called NOW?
So I got to the courthouse and took a seat, waiting to sign in. Of course they called the group I was sitting in dead last to sign in. I got to the courthouse at 8:30 and didn't get to sign in until 9:30. During that hour, I sat in a chair wondering how the hell I was going to make it through the day given the fact that I was so tired I considered curling up in a ball on the floor and crying. I mean, I didn't know what I was going to do. I brought magazines to read and thank you cards to write, and I couldn't muster up the energy to even open the bag where I stored them.
Finally we got called to sign in. When I got to the front of the line and stated my name, the woman looked at her records and said, "Oh Ms. Rudo, do you have an issue with daycare?"
See, when you send in your form for jury duty, they ask you whether you provide daycare for your children, to which I replied, "Yes."
So I told the woman that I have a three-week-old at home. And she said the words that were music to my ears - "Oh, they've excused you. Didn't you get the notice in the mail? Oh wait, they sent it out Friday."
Friday?!? Yesterday was only Tuesday. I didn't get that piece of mail. And I still haven't, as a matter of fact. It would have been nice to have gotten the notice before I schlepped all the way to the courthouse. But really, I'm just thankful I got to hightail it out of there when I did.

3 comments:

Erika said...

That's weird b/c I got my first jury duty notice to serve right after Caroline was to be born too. But I took that form to my OB so fast, your head would spin.

Glad you got out of it! (I did too and just finally had to serve a few months ago so just b/c you got called now doesn't mean they'll be after you again soon!)

wassygirl said...

when i was in college, i got like 3 or 4 notices, but i always got excused since i was in school. then, they got me with federal duty a year or 2 after i graduated. then, they tried to call me again. and i was like, i don sink so, buster.

Holly said...

Bastards... that happened to me when Ryan was like 2 months old. Forget the fact that I'm married to a cop & will NEVER sit on a jury panel because of it, I was wondering how the hell my boobs weren't going to blow up while I was there! Almost 7 hours I had to wait until I heard "you can go home now". Boy was I mad.... and what made it worse... $23 check came in the mail for my time!