"Jury Duty"

Double four letter words that no one likes to get and yet I seem to be cursed with it. This was my third jury duty summons in 4-5 years. Most people get one or two summons in a life time. As if karma was coming back at me with a vengence, this jury duty was at municipal court, city hall. It was a place I visited daily, knew it well, ins and outs, and all that good stuff.

I called three days in advance in hopes of getting out of it. The recording at the end of the line was cruel and relentless, even up to the hour the message was the same. All I could think of is what I did to deserve this. Had I done someone wrong? Did I laugh at someone else for getting jury duty? I was even scheduled to drive up to Dallas with friends that day to see the opening of The Matrix on Imax. Somehow I really must have really gotten on the bad side of someone.

Summons in hand I stopped at the steps of city hall hoping for one last miracle to save me from this. It never came, and as I was about to walk in another person with jury duty notice in hand walked by. I thought why go it alone and we went in together as a team.

As I sat there in that jury room trying my best to lay low enough to dodge any lawyer questions; I thought the only thing that would save me from this was my job with the city.

I didn't get picked. Maybe it was my job afterall, maybe it wasn't. I for sure was not gonna question it, I was just gonna be grateful that I did not get picked and get the heck outta dodge before they changed their mind. I musta broke some kind of speed record for going down two flights of steps and running to my car.

That weekend I did see The Matrix on IMAX and came to the conclussion it was worth the wait a few days. And that's my story from the battlefield of jury duty.