Jury Duty

A few weeks ago I got the court summons to appear for jury duty so this morning I packed a small bag with some reading material and my iPod and headed to the courthouse downtown to fulfill my civic duty.

7:40 - arrive at Multnomah County Courthouse
7:52 - pass through security and arrive at second line to get into the jury waiting room
8:04 - locate available seat and open the book (I'm in the midst of "Hoot")
8:20 - a judge comes to explain how we jurors are the most important "cog in the wheel of democracy" yadda, yadda, yadda
8:43 - my first small jury duty nap commences
9:00 - a man calls the first 45 names for the grand jury, my name is not called (whew!)
9:15 - finish my book and flip through the latest Sunset magazine
10:00 - discover there are couches in the back of the room and move to one of them
10:30 - listen to iPod, notice that soccer is still on t.v. but that a woman now has the remote control and appears to be channel surfing, the men are annoyed and fearful
10:33 - the woman has, perhaps in the interest of self preservation, selected another sports channel
10:35 - open up the second book (entitled "How I Became Stupid") and begin reading
11:30 - the old lady that coordinates the jurors comes to the podium to announce we are no longer needed and are able to leave for the day
11:34 - mass exodus as we file out
11:40 - enter Niketown
12:02 - leave Nike with a new pair of running shoes

And that concludes my downtown day at the courthouse.