we the jury

jury duty. dorchester, ma. the real deal jury duty. dorchester is a different world - and i'm not talking whitley and duane wayne's different world either - and the court rooms of dorchester are a different planet. although, none of us actually even saw the inside of a court room since everyone (20 cases) either settled or made some sort of deal. thank god we are innocent until proven guilty.

the day starts out pretty badly since i got lost on my way to dorchestah and my little jury duty card said to be there at 8. i decided that since dorchester is technically part of boston - because otherwise, why would they send me there? - that the washington street of the south end is the very same washington street of dorchester. who needs directions? right-o jackass. so, its 7:55 and i realize that my washington street is heading out towards newton and i take a random left into jamaica plain. i am completely lost and frantic about being late as i somehow find my way to a street name that is on the very nice and clear map that the jury people have put on my reminder notice. after a few 3 point and U turns i somehow make it to the dorchester district courthouse, find parking on the street and scramble inside at about 8:15. "jury duty?" says the nice man at the x-ray machine. "yes, i'm sorry. i'm late." he looks at me as if i have five heads and says - you're not late. nothing happens until 9 at the earliest. what? so now i'm not only not late, i'm ridiculously early?

up i go to the jury pool room. come 9 we get locked in a room and are forbidden to leave - they have 2 bathrooms and 2 vending machines - until 10:30 for a coffee break. 2 people showed up at around 9:15. did they not see the 8:00 on the damn sheet? i don't get who these people are. anyway, 10:30 rolls around and out we go onto the courthouse steps where i enter the scene in the movie where someone gets gunned down on the courthouse steps. its swarming with people. cars are driving by. others are double parked to get some of the roach coach's fine food. i don't even care about being an innocent victim because i have to get my sustinance for the day. they warned us in their speech that this is our only shot at food. and my pregnant self is starving. i got my old stand-by from my days at LSC. 2 drake's - not hostess - coffee cakes and a large coffee. i was very tempted to get an egg, bacon and cheese sandwich but the term "roach coach" kept running through my head and i chickened out. i also bought a whole bunch of RC health food (smart food, gatorade, etc) to last me the rest of the day.

that was about the extent of the excitement for the day. i unfortunately didn't write this soon enough to remember some of the gems that i heard outside on the break. you will have to trust me that it was unbelievably fascinating stuff. at about 1:30 we were dismissed. there was cheering.

that was the 4th time i have been to jury duty and stayed in the same room until we were all told to go home. crazy.