Is it me, or is there a hint of joy in the air? Call me crazy, but it’s kind of fun not to be so pessimistic about the election. And it’s always a bonus when ignorant sound bites turn into humorous t-shirts.
I mentioned I’ve been out and about more than usual. The big reveal is that I was on jury duty for the better part of a month. We finished our deliberations yesterday, and I am free again. They said we can now talk about the case, but I’m done. I’ll just say it was a criminal case featuring child pornography, kinky sex and other details I’d prefer to forget.
Aside from the case itself, hanging around the courthouse is no picnic. We had a lot of downtime waiting for things to get going, and the slice of life that paraded past was grim at best. One woman in a cute orange outfit and chains saw us piling into the jury room and yelled, “You’re all going to hell!”
The whole experience made me appreciate the pleasures of being ordinary. And grateful for my privileged and drama-free retirement. When’s my tee time? What’s for dinner? No interactions with the police so far. My sex life may be boring, but I’m grateful 12 jurors, three alternates and a gallery full of spectators will never have to hear about it.
So, after a brief pause to admire my life choices, I return to the bubble. I’ve sort of kept up with my strengthening exercises, but it has been hit or miss, and I’m happy to get back to my mindless routine. I went to the driving range and hit some balls. Swimming tomorrow. Pizza. Maybe a movie.
Just ordinary stuff.
I`m grateful for every single person whose sex life I will never have to hear about.
Ditto. I used to joke that I was interested in all things prurient, but no more.
You’ve reminded me that I have a jury summons waiting for me when I get home from our current trip. Oh joy! Just two more years and I guess they will consider me too old and feeble to have to serve.
I love my boring life too. Childless and no cats, but certainly not miserable (what an idiot JD has turned out to be). No one will ever have to hear about my sex life or anything else about me from a jury box.
Yes, I will be 70 next year and will hopefully not have to do this again. I did not try to get out of it, but quite a few prospective jurors were let go because for one reason or another, they said they could not be fair and impartial. Something to keep in mind.
I love my ordinary life. Reminds me of a line by Nora Ephron in You’ve got mail when the character played by Meg Ryan muses: “ Sometimes I wonder about my life. I lead a small life – well, valuable, but small – and sometimes I wonder, do I do it because I like it, or because I haven’t been brave? So much of what I see reminds me of something I read in a book, when shouldn’t it be the other way around? I don’t really want an answer. I just want to send this cosmic question out into the void. So good night, dear void.”
“Small but valuable.” That resonates, even if the value at this stage of my life is to my husband, my dog, and me.
Which makes me think of another line in the movie Babe, from the farmer to the pig that herds sheep after he does a good job: “That’ll do pig, that’ll do.”
I’ll stop now.
How great to hear from you! Hope that new hip is doing well.
I like small but valuable. Thanks for that.
My last two times on a jury were pretty interesting (one involved the trophy wife of a local TV weatherperson accusing the older ex-wife of battery), but a case involving child pornography would be horrible. If only you could pick and choose. Ordinary is good, and you definitely don’t want to hear your doctor say you are an interesting case. That’s never good.
Yes, they dismissed a lot of prospective jurors because they said they couldn’t handle it. We were all wishing for a murder!