Ding Dong, The Witch is Dead - My Life Returns

Yesterday's jury duty was a rather intense morning. If our names were called (and mine was called as the 8th one on the Judge/s list) we were seated in the jury box at the front portion of the court. There were 22 of us called for that seating, with the remainder of the potential jurors seated on the audience benches at the back of the court. Then questioning started. Between the questions, we also got a bit more information about the nature of the case. 

Here's a lovely Bas Relief sculpture in Art Deco style 
gracing the wall at the Courthouse. There are little gems 
of artwork sprinkled throughout the building from top 
to bottom. I took photos of the elevator doors to share 
with all of you, and I'll try to do that for tomorrow's blog. 

The case revolved around the sexual abuse of a thirteen-year-old girl by the Defendant. Late in the morning it came out that the abuse had happened five years previously, which led me to wonderiwhy the heck it had been put off so long. Why hadn't the parents filed suit in this case much earlier? I was left in the dark on that, though. Two of the attorneys were allowed to ask their questions, one for the defense and one for the prosecution. I wasn't asked anything, so sat mute, watching and listening. It was interesting, but none of my answers on the questionnaire we all filled out apparently elicited questions outside of the one-on-one interview I had the previous day. 

I really enjoyed my two meals at Momento in downtown 
St Paul. The food was excellent and the service was 
spot on. It's a bit expensive, but it's downtown - I wouldn't 
expect anything else. I'm glad I don't need to spend these 
prices for lunch every day, but for two days it was a special 
treat after some long, frustrating hours at court. 

Two potential jurors were dismissed with thanks and sent to the Jury Duty room for reassignment or to be struck from the active rolls. We finally got to a good stopping point, the Defense and the Prosecution having both had their chance to question us, and we broke for lunch. I joined another juror and we headed down the skyway to Momento for a lovely lunch, then we returned to the 12th floor and our gathering room. 

OMG, what a relief! I'm finally finished with Jury Duty, and 
they can't call me again for four years. Of course I'll be 
over their age limit at that time, so basically, I'm done! 

When we entered the courtroom, we were told to all gather at the back of the room and only come forward to fill the jury box if our name was called. Fortunately, my name was NOT called, so I was finally "Free At Last". Those of us remaining, after we were officially dismissed, got the hell out of that courtroom as quickly as we possibly could, heading down to the lowest level to get officially checked out and thanked for our service. 

I got one of these lovely stickers for my eight days 
of service, along with a hearty "thank you" and the 
offer of some candy which I turned down. I practically 
ran to my car in case anyone changed their mind. 

So today I'm back to a "normal" schedule, except that I can't remember if DH and I were switching days today or not. I'll find out eventually and either head to the shop or just start shoveling here. We're in the middle of a serious winter storm that started last night, and I'm really grateful I don't have to try to get downtown to the courthouse today. I'll have lots of shoveling to do at the shop, but that's just fine. I can use the exercise after ten days of sitting around waiting for paint to dry at the courthouse. Whether I work today or tomorrow, I'll be at the pool tomorrow morning. Life can start returning to normal again. Slava Ukraini.