I am on a jury, for the first time in my life. I've had jury duty before, but have never been picked for a jury, until now. I was hoping that I would have time to blog while being in court all day, but that was a fantasy.So I'm going to take a blogging break for the next week, and get back to it after the 18th.
Every day I take two books to the courthouse with me, both of which were birthday gifts from my sweet husband: Barbara Kingsolver's The Lacuna: A Novel or Francine Prose's Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife. However I try to parcel out the minutes, I have no time to actually read them.
And then I'm too tired to read when I get home at night. I'll let you know if I've made progress once I'm back! In the meantime, I'll try to check in with all my blogging friends, but doubt I'll have time to write much. We'll see!
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7 comments:
Jury duty exhausts me! The waiting, the sitting, the back and forth. So tedious. However, the people watching is usually pretty good. I can usually amuse myself for several hours just by checking people out.
I was on jury duty last spring. I had time to read on the first day, before I got called to a panel, and that was mostly it. Once I got into a courtroom, I was supposed to be paying attention :-), and the breaks aren't long enough to get much reading done. Hope you're not stuck for too long!
Ti--it's amazing how exhausting just sitting around can be! I'm beat!
Florinda--once the trial started, there's been no time to read. You get two 10 or 15 minute breaks, and a lunch break, and the rest of the time you're right, you're SUPPOSED to be paying attention!
The trial I was on had all sorts of breaks and really long lunches...I think the judge had something else going on. Too bad you're not getting in much reading. :-(
I learnt my lines for a play I was in quite effectively while I was on jury duty. But when one other juror found out what I was doing she said, 'I wondered why you were mouthing and throwing your hands about while you were reading!' And I got let off a really nasty murder case because I was in the play (and the case would last so long it would clash), although the whole court burst out laughing when I said I was doing a 'one-woman show' and the judge said in a scandalized voice 'What on earth is a one-woman show?'
I've often wondered what jury duty would be like, having never done it. I'd rather hear about someone else's experiences! Do hope the case is not too harrowing, and that you get some time to read what sounds like two wonderful books!
jill--we get two ten-to-fifteen minute breaks, and a longish lunch, an hour and a half. I've been eating lunch with the other jurors, just to have someone to talk to...
elizabeth--lol, at least you got something done! I find I can't concentrate on anything else while the lawyers and witnesses drone on, and the breaks are too short to do anything much. Ugh!
litlove--This trial is a civil trial, so it isn't harrowing at all. A criminal trial runs the risk of being harrowing, but at least it might be interesting as well!
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