Mon 14 Aug 2006
The 88 prospective jurors today are way whinier than our remarkably cooperative 91 jurors last Monday. Monday’s panels were so great that we already swore in 12, we just need to find our 3 alternates from that panel. Today, instead of 90, we started with 85 because some just failed to appear, and others whined their way out with doctor’s notes claiming anxiety, and get this, “cough and headache.” One elderly juror just announced that she was here on trial 3 years ago before us on another case. “How’d I do?” my judge asked her. “Very well,” she replied cordially. “Thank you. That’s the right answer,” my judge said to the laughter of the courtroom.
Despite my grumbling about certain aspects of this job, it’s interesting when I consider how badly I really, truly wanted this job before it was mine. Weren’t we all like that? All of us who complain about coming to work in the mornings, who gripe about a day “ruined” by having to get up too early to sit in a cubicle/office/courtroom or to visit clients on the field, didn’t we all at one point beg the stars audibly or inaudibly, “Please, please PLEASE lemme get this job! Please like me after the interview! Please give me a call-back! I am SO RIGHT for this job, I SO WANT this job!” ?
Funny, ain’t it?
i know what you mean – after have been working pretty all the way from sunday 8 am until now , i am grumpy and hungry.
but i badly wanted this job as well.
Sometimes being here is pretty cool. Just minutes ago, for instance, I opened the door and let in our 85 jurors to resume jury selection. One elderly man sitting on the stone bench remained in the hallway. “Are you a juror with us, sir?” I asked.
He looked up nervously. “Oh, no, I’m not a juror, but my wife is.”
“Oh, would you like to come in and sit through jury service with her?”
His eyes lit up. “I can do that? I didn’t know I could do that! Oh, thank you so much, thank you for being so kind!” he said, getting up with his book.
“I didn’t want you to have to sit outside in the cold hallway all this time, I didn’t know you were here with her,” I explained, letting him in the door.
He was so happy, he almost hugged me, but he refrained and just touched the edge of my jaw with an open upraised hand and kept saying, “Thank you! That’s so kind of you!” and sat down in the back row separate from the other jurors where I directed him.
Sometimes it takes so little.
speaking of jury selection, i am on call the first week of september. i find out the friday before. i hope i don’t get picked. although it would an interesting experience.
If you do get picked, you can tell me how much work the clerks up north seem to do. We hear they do a lot less work for a lot more pay.
I’m on/off about my job.. somedays I’m glad I’m there and other days I can’t believe I ever decided to be a nurse.
You’re a nurse to help people like me. =) It’s all about me. If I were in Florida and suddenly fell ill enough to be taken to a hospital, I’d be REALLY HAPPY to look up and see you leaning over my bed.
Would you still be happy if I were holding a 21 gauge needle? I promise though, that I’ll go easy. 🙂
ps.. it’s just that somedays when the patients/family members think I’m more of a waitress that gets me riled a little..
pushing on your call light 61 times in a shift for something like “fresh ice” when I have someone coding on me… grr
You know the saying “be careful for what you wish for”? Well, I have a job that pretty much takes no brain power and the first thing people say when I tell them I have nothing to do is that they are envious. But the grass is always seems greener on the other side. A girl can only Google, shop, email so much before she is utterly bored. Today is dragging . . . I am silently begging for my boss to ask me to get him coffee or set a meeting. Pathetic I know!
I know what you mean Vanessa.. I had a cake nursing admin. job and surfed a lot too, but the fun didn’t last too long.. I ran out of things to surf and the time just ticked by so slow… I like a fast paced job. Before you know it.. it’s the end of your shift.