Jury Duty

I got a summons last Tuesday for jury duty today. They don't give you much time do they? I figured it was karma biting me in the butt because one of my friends got picked a couple of weeks ago and I laughed at him. Actually, I don't mind jury duty. It is a privilege that we live in a country that allows us to participate in the legal system and I think that a lot of people forget that. It would never even occur to me to "not" go. Just like voting... I will never understand why people do not vote when given the opportunity.
Thank God I live out in the country in a small county. It is easy to get to the courthouse, parking is free, and there are no long lines to wait in. If I had to go down to the Harris County courthouse in Houston and sit around for 7 years with all the other people waiting for jury duty.... I might have different feelings about it. The only bad thing about jury duty is that I ALWAYS get picked. ALWAYS!!!! They never even ask me any personal questions during the selection process outside of the basic name, age, and occupation. They just pick me. I guess that is a small town for you. If they really wanted to know my political and religious views they might have second thoughts about putting me up there because opionated is my middle name. Child of a Catholic and Jewish household with very vocal conservative yet occasionally extremely far to the left views anyone? Probably not...... Anyways, I show up and was juror number 203 which is good considering they only summon 250. I would say only about 40 people showed up and I ended up in the last row in the courtroom with only 2 people after me so I felt I had a fighting chance to not be chosen...... until I started looking around at some of the potential jury members. Yep, I was going to be called. There were some real "unusual" looking characters in this group and they would be shown the door quickly.
The judge entered the courtroom and gave us a little speech about what an honor it was to serve, yada yada yada....... and that he had good news and bad news. The good news was that we had all made it on time and that he was glad we were here. The bad news was that we had all made it on time, were here, and that the case had been settled outside of court 15 minutes earlier. Bad news my ass!!!! YIIIPPPEEEEEEEEE! We all looked at each other like "Thank God!!!!" and scurried out into the beautiful sunny day. No jury duty and a paid day off from work. Score!!!!!!!