Jury Duty

Having postponed jury duty twice, I had no choice but to show up to 60 Centre Street at 8:45 on Tuesday morning. There's actually a nasty little notation on my summons that read POSTPONED 2X--MUST SERVE. I had this scene all planned out where the cleric would look at my summons and snark "Thanks for showing up this time, sir." And I'd snark right back without missing a beat, "Thanks for scheduling me for a time when I'm actually in this time zone, bitch." Alas, it didn't come to that. But weird (ultimately) unavoidable things like this always makes me very anxious because 1) I fear the unfamilar 2) I hate doing things by myself and 3) the potential of my actions indelibly affecting someone else's life makes me really uncomfortable. I also feel semi-autistic in situations like these because I'm not that great at interacting with strangers. I have a congenital case of Stranger Danger.

Ostensibly, everyone on jury duty is in the same boat--not knowing anyone else and feeling somewhat resentful for being there in the first place. It's like the first day of kindergarten, only with bigger chairs. It's a great social leveler, and you can expect to meet people from a broad cross section of society. This is what makes our justice system so infallible. But I'd really like to know how people leave the waiting room at the end of the day with new found friends.

There were these four women sitting in front of me who all went out to lunch together the very first day. They were all laughing and joking with each other the whole time. I was in the elevator when they on their way to lunch (they were heading to some Chinese restaurant behind the courthouse, in case you need details) and one of the ladies said "Hey, remember when Nadia answered her cell phone and Lynn was like, 'that's my ring, too!' and then the proctor yelled at us, but we thought it was because Lynn was so loud, and not because Nadia was on the cell phone? Wasn't that funny?" Then all the women laughed, heartily agreeing that it was, indeed, funny (it was merely annoying from where I was sitting, but I guess that's my problem). I mean, am I wrong in assuming that these people only met four hours ago? Is that really enough time to have a "Hey, remember?" story? At this rate they will have slept with each other's husbands by mid afternoon. Also, do you think they had some kind of chromosomal disorder?

QUESTION: Do you think stupid people are more or less likely to find someone guilty? I think more likely, because while they're more susceptible to that silver-tongued defense attorney, they're also very angry because the world confuses them and someone must pay.

Anyway, the important thing is that I didn't get picked for any trials and that I've fulfilled my civic duty. The earliest they can call me in again in 2009, and I'm sure they won't waste any time because they've already established that I'm a sucker for showing up in the first place.