I'm Practically A Founding Father. Or Mother.

Today I had jury duty.

Booooooo, right?

Nope, it was awesome!

I showed up at 8 am for my one day.  The room was warm and spacious, with comfy chairs

and a panoramic window showing us the storm right outside.

First, a judge showed up in his suit and red bow tie:

Nooooo... not that guy!  A grown-up judge guy in a red bow tie!

He gave a short speech that simultaneously reassured us we were in for an easy day,

and praised us for being Super-Patriots who should be proud of 

 doing our civic duty.

THANKS, JUDGE GUY!

Next, a red-haired woman went to the podium to give us an orientation speech.

 Well, she didn't have Joan's figure, but she certainly had her sass.

We laughed as she gave us the needed info in a sly, snarky way, and

we also thought a collective "Buuuuuuurn..." when she coolly asked the owner

of a ringing cell phone, "Do you need to get that?"

(Joan would have been proud.) 

What next?

VACATION BEACH TIME!

Well, not literally.  But we just needed to hang close, so I busted out my newspaper 

and book, and spent a pleasant morning reading, reading, reading, which I usually only get to do on a weekday morning when I'm on vacation, sprawled on a beach blanket.

And how much time did we get for our lunch break?

NINETY FULL MINUTES!

Ooh la la, am I in France?

I get a scant 25 minutes at work, sometimes less.

After having time to not only get a Chipotle salad bowl

but also go for a nice long walk in the rain, I headed back for more reading

and a bit of check balancing. 

Done with my chore, I decided to reward myself with a trip to the vending machine:

I don't know the last time I had one of these.

They were, as I remembered, DELICIOUS.

By now it was 3 pm.  

Joan-Adjacent asked us all to return to the room, where we nervously waited to 

be called to a panel.  (Sort of a preliminary for being called on a case.)

But, no! 


We
were

FREEEEEE!!!!

We tossed our badges in the baskets,

grabbed our "Get Out Of Jury Duty For One Year" paperwork

and we were GONE!!

All in all, it was a fine way to spend Friday the 13th.