01/29/2024 - 9:50 a.m.

So, here I am...

My life is good -- my room is quiet. I'm home...

Last week I was called for possible jury duty. And amazingly, it took three days. It was a bad experience, just in that regard. it was hard to get to the courthouse -- no public transit. And I didn't want to drive...

So I got a ride down, and then walked a mile to get back on public transit for coming home. If I'd been picked as a juror, I'd get a hotel room near the courthouse, I told myself. Except the nearest one was a mile away, and cost $100 a night...

Toward the last day I'd found an AirBNB place that was only $50 a night -- and just a half mile from the courthouse. But looking back, I think that's what made this such a stressful experience. If I could've just stayed in my home -- nights, really every night of the trial and deliberations -- I don't think this would've been as stressful. Or if the trial had been closer to home...

But it wasn't. I eventually got myself thrown off the jury by raising some potential biases I might bring. I'd thought it was the judge who'd decided to let me go, but looking back I think maybe it was one of the lawyers. Maybe -- to learn the wrong lesson -- you don't have to worry about jury duty in the future, because we've seen that it's possible to get a lawyer to dismiss you, if you just suggest enough bias.

I also hate that it took three days, just to screen potential jurors. And I can point to how things were run that made it worse. (Instead of keeping us late, they'd dismiss us early in the afternoon - but then have us come back again the next day. And, the next day...) I was also a little chuffed that the judge didn't dismiss me for "financial hardship" on the first day, like I'd wanted. But it was all compounded by the fact that it was so hard to get to the courthouse -- and that I was looking at at least two more weeks just for hearing the case. Which would've meant roughly two weeks of living out of my home, just to go to the case that I didn't want to listen to.

Maybe the point of this story is just that I'm really glad to be back home. Maybe I also appreciate them giving me a chance to talk about how I felt - to be honest, and (after many, many delays) to be heard. I didn't want to be on jury duty, and I was honest about what was going on, and how I felt -- and then ended up not on jury duty. The system works -- but slowly?

And that court house was just way too far away...