14 of us – 2 of them

July 22nd, 2008 / posted by Jake

I reported to my Jury Summons on Tuesday.  Having never been summoned before, I didn’t know what to expect therefore I went in with a clear and open mind.  Upon arriving at the courthouse I saw around 300 people who, just like me, were summoned for Jury Duty.  I filled out the generic questionnaire, dawned my name badge, and waited.  To better explain the waiting process, a cakewalk comes to mind.

As a kid we would always attend our elementary school’s fair/carnival.  I vividly remember always bypassing the cheesy fishing games, bottle games, and other corny games because I knew that the cakewalk had much greater dividends.  You got a cake as a prize – who doesn’t want a cake? In order to even be eligible to win the cake you had to first be selected to participate in the cakewalk.  The selection process of course was done by drawing names/tickets out of a hat at random.  I recall always thinking that my name was next to be called so I’d get impatient and slowly start to stand up each time they were announcing a new name.  But unfortunately, my name was NEVER drawn.  Not once.  While others would leave the fair with their winnings in hand, I would walk away with my hand hung low empty handed, tears streaming down my cheeks.

Well after 20+ years, I finally figured out that I just have bad luck when and where others seem to have better luck.  So when they announced that names would be drawn at random, I just smiled and thought to myself, “I won’t be picked – awesome!”

“Jake Toolson”.  I didn’t know what to do or say – my name has never been picked.  This must be a mistake or they need me because I left my carlights on.  Nope.  Sure enough, out of the initial group of 300, my name was chosen at random.  So I ran up the stairs to the 5th floor yelling “caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaake!”

Well the fun was just getting started.  So from the initial group of 300, 60 jurors are called to a specific court room.  From there, its back to square one – from the 60, about 45 are actually called into the courtroom.  The others are excused and sent home.  Once again, I thought “Ok… me being picked in the first round was just dumb luck.  Theres no way I’ll…..”

“Jake Toolson.”

“Crap.”

After 1 1/2 days of jury selection I was eventually selected as juror #1 which is where I would remain for the remaining 5 days.  Luckily it was a battery case so it didn’t last forever.  After deliberating for an entire day we unanimously found the defendants guilty and were released from our services never to return again – at least not for 12 months.

Suffice it to say its been a long couple weeks (months):

• Lindsey finished her Phlebotomy Externship (which is why she was gone for 4 weeks)
• I had Jury Duty (during which I was not paid so goodbye to 1 weeks worth of $)
• I had my wallet stolen
• We had a couple weeks with 100+ degree weather so we probably swam 2-3 a day for a few weeks.
• Tyler is almost potty trained at 2 1/2 years
• Kaitlyn is a crawling machine and walking with help at 8 months
• Tyler is learning to swim without his water-wings

Tags: jury duty