Jury duty, part two

July 20th, 2006 | Comments (5) | Trackbacks (0) |

Before I begin, I would first like to highlight this rather hilarious comment from Shawn regarding the new header image:

Farmer 1: “Did you plant any JAKEBOUMA.COM this year?”
Farmer 2: “Sure did! If you look off into the distance, you can even see it growing on the horizon!”
Farmer 1: “Well sure enough, looky there!”

Thanks, Shawn. Excellent use of stichomythia, I might add.

Seriously, though. I went in for jury duty on Monday morning, and after watching a horrible 18-minute video from 1983 about the “value” of being a juror, we waited until called into our respective court rooms for jury selection. It just so happened that we were called into the exact same court room where my trial was held, and just to heighten the irony, the defense attorney in the room was the same one who defended my case. I was hastily excused from the room and instructed to return Wednesday morning for another selection process.

Unfortunately, I was supposed to leave Wednesday morning for a trip with my junior high students to the Mall of America and Valleyfair. So on Tuesday afternoon I called the Jury Clerk and politely asked for an exemption. After telling me “Sir, jury duty is inconvenient for everyone,” she told me she’d speak with the judge and call me back. After “trying” to call me “all afternoon”, she “finally got a hold” of me at 7:45 Wednesday morning and said I was excused - fifteen minutes before the bus left for Minnesota.

So I am blogging now from a Super 8 in Bloomington, MN, with five 7th grade boys asleep on one side of the room while I anticipate having a bed to myself. Life is good.