I had something else planned for today, but pulling it together would have required most of my day yesterday and as luck would have it, I spent all of my day yesterday learning more about how the judicial system works. That's right: jury duty.
This was the first time I'd ever reported for jury duty. I received a summons once during my college years but didn't have to report, and then I wasn't summoned again until after I'd started having kids and their existence (and my role as the primary caregiver for a child under the age of 12) meant I was exempt. But I'm not longer eligible for that or any other exemption, so yesterday morning I found myself at the courthouse ready to serve.
To our court's credit, they have a pretty good system of assigning jury duty. Citizens are able to submit scheduling conflicts when responding to a summons, so jury duty dates are assigned to be as "convenient" as possible. This week, while not completely free (I don't have any of those weeks right now), was my best option.
I was there from 8:10am until 4:30pm - a LONG day - but I didn't end up on the jury. I'm grateful the cards fell like they did this time because I honestly didn't feel like I had the mental and emotional bandwidth to handle the specific case (or jury duty in general) right now. I learned a lot though, and I know that down the road, perhaps when I don't have kids at home who still need me, I would be proud to serve.
Just for fun (and because I didn't take any pictures while at the courthouse), here are pics of Will first in the Texas Supreme Court and second in the cafeteria of the United States Supreme Court just minutes after he saw RBG.
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