omg, you guys

Not only did I have to go to jury duty today, I was almost impaneled on a MURDER TRIAL. Holy shit. I *told* all y'all that I knew they'd have cases to try after the holidays. And switching my court location to Salem Superior for the commuting ease? Um, apparently this is where all the excitement happens, what with all the drug dealing and the gang violence in the immediate environs. (Though I was originally slated for Haverhill, which I'm sure is just as bad, just hella far away.) Luckily, the judge excused me from an estimated one month trial when I told him my adult son was handicapped and relied on me to accompany him to doctor's appointments and so forth. I may have even used the "s" word. This may have been very slightly overstating the case--since D *could* go to an appointment alone if he really really had to--but it certainly wasn't a lie. I'm not one of those douchebags who raised their hands and pretended to have "prejudices"that would keep them from fairly considering the evidence. You know they were all just looking for a way out.

Speaking of which? Jury of your peers? Whitest fucking room ever. There were about sixty people in the pool and one of them was a young Asian woman. Considering the demographics in our little slice of lower Essex County, you'd have expected some Asians, some black people, and if all was really fair and proportionate, a whole bunch of Latinos. I guess they all escape jury duty by reason of either non-citizenship or, possibly, pretending not to speak as much English as they really do. But, man, I could not believe the total lack of diversity.

Anyway, the whole thing was very scary. Of things I would like to do, serving on a jury for an alleged gang-related shooting is not one of them. I will spare you the rest of this story about how I was two minutes late arriving to court and I was so panicked about that (unlike the people who strolled in unconcerned at 8:15) that I almost tripped down the stairs and kept setting off the metal detector. Sigh. No dignity. I almost tripped coming back into the courthouse too. The hell with wearing my glasses to look intelligent; they probably had me pegged as a drunk or something.

Forgive any typos in this. I'm having trouble with the laptop again and it's hard to see what I've typed, plus it was a tough day. I had to buy myself a really carb-laden lunch when they finally let me go and then come home and take a bath. Really, my nerves were shot. But I am done for at least three years. Next time I'm requesting a hardship transfer to Newburyport. Does any crime happen up there? I don't think so!

xoxo