The Many Sides of Jury Duty

Even when you are almost completed with your novel, there are only a few chapters to go, when you are a working parent to a baby it is still hard to find time to write.  You can try to write during your lunch break at work but in an open office setting that is not ideal when people are constantly talking or interrupting your creative train of thoughts.  So that hasn't worked. You can wait until your baby falls asleep.  If you were lucky enough to have a baby that slept and slept in their own bed. So that hasn't worked.  You can try to write while your baby is playing with her toys.  However, when your little one is attracted to what you are doing and the paper and pen you are using, you can get one paragraph written or edited but, that won't obviously work either.

So, what do you do?  This writer was lucky enough to get a jury summons. Serving my civic duty I went to go serve my jury duty. I dressed nicely and showed up right on time.  Thankfully, I wasn't late but I did manage to squeak in just at the last minute.  I made my way to the third floor and waited in a long line to register my presence for jury duty and get my official badge.  Then I made my way to the jury lounge where you wait to get called to serve on a jury panel.  The room I entered was very long and set up almost like a church with chairs on both sides of the room and an aisle in the center with a podium at the top of the room.  This is where the woman announces all the names and numbers of the individuals who get called to a jury panel.  The room was warm but that may be because when I walked into the room it was a little like walking in after church has already started.  The chairs were full and you had to walk down until you found a spot in the center and ask the people to let you in.  In the jury room the people were less gracious about having to move their stuff from the chair next to them to let you sit there, but I persevered, stood my ground, and got a seat I wasn't about to give up so no bathroom breaks for me.

Then, I did the most exciting thing of my day. I sat. I sat, and sat, and sat.  Doing your civic duty is dull.  At one point the court people played a video introducing you to jury duty and all you should know.  I would rather have sat in silence. The video was a bit like something you would see explaining to a toddler what jury duty was.  I did get to watch many of the people which I do enjoy doing. I say the man who obsessively checked his phone and in lightening speed kept going through various apps.  I say the woman who was slumped over asleep.  I noticed most of the people in attendance did not dress business casual as I did so I was a bit overdressed for jury duty.  Maybe they would think I was a lawyer and not call my name.  There was the couple I sat next to who discussed playing tennis at the club on the weekends with other friends.  It was and interesting mix of DC elite, worker bees like myself (we stood out in our business attire), and regular DC people who probably grew up in DC their whole lives.

The people watching lasted about twenty minutes before my mind began to wander and the sitting started to become antsy shifting in my chair constantly. I saw many people reading newspapers or books and was wishing I had remembered to bring one.  It always takes me so long to wake up in the morning that I should have packed one the night before.  Alas, I forgot.  What I did have though is paper and pens.  As a writer, I am almost never without paper and pens.  There are even pens in my bathroom on the off chance that an idea will hit in there.  You would be amazed how many creative ideas come to an individual during solo, quiet time in the restroom.  Da Vinci probably thought up the design for the Mona Lisa, Einstein could have thought through the concept of E=MC.  Nonetheless, I pulled out my paper and my pen and actually got to do some writing.

I wrote and I wrote and I wrote.  I can not remember when I was able to work on my writing for such a long period of time.  It felt so good and I got so lost in my writing that it took me a minute to realize after about an hour that the woman at the front was about to call names to sit on a panel and I would have to pay attention.  So my brain left the 1800s quickly and entered back into the stuffy, overpopulated jury lounge.  After reading names and numbers for about twenty minutes the room became almost empty because they called so many of the individuals to serve on jury panels.  After the last name was called, my name never yelled out as one of the intended to serve, I sat back and waited as everyone left.  Then in the silence of the now sparsely populated room I re-entered the realm of intrigue and suspense.

This became my sole occupation during jury duty, sitting and writing.  I never got called to a jury panel which means I spent my day sitting in the jury lounge waiting and writing.  I would have thought it a wasted day if I never had a chance to do so much writing.  Jury duty became an exciting adventure in finishing chapter thirty-one.  Though, I do not wish to have jury duty again any time soon, I am ever grateful that I finally found a time to get some real writing done without little hands pulling on paper, grabbing my pen, pulling my hair, or trying to type on the computer.  It also puts me another chapter closer to the end.  There is a light at the end of the tunnel and it is getting very exciting.

At 2:30 the lady at the front in true Queen of Jury Duty style lavishly announced we could leave for the day and not come back. We were dismissed. I happily trot out of the courthouse without having to sit on any jury panel but a completed chapter in my bag. My many adventures in jury duty were accomplished. At least until I get called again.