mrs-roboto's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Then Again, Maybe I was Excused Based On My Psychopathic Tendancies Today I had to serve jury duty. Now while I understand jury duty is inconvenient for everyone and no one likes to go, I have to say it was ten times worse for me. Why you ask? Because I had to go all the way to the seventh circle of hell, AKA the suburbs! But Mrs-R you may ask, why on earth would you need to go there? After all, you live in the city. You pay city real estate taxes. You work in the city a mere 4 block from a courthouse. Why oh why would you be asked to travel one hour and forty five minutes on a bus out to the land of strip malls and architectural sprawl to serve? Well, I felt inclined to ask the same question. Apparently, the courts like to get the opinion of us city folk and spread it across the board. It's all about demographics, yadda yadda yadda. Well you know what? As far as I'm concerned the 'burbs can bite me. I need to back up a bit and point out a thing or two so I don't seem like such an insensitive ass. Pete and I have a single vehicle that we share. We do this not because we can't afford to have separate vehicles but because we are making a conscious effort to be environmentally aware. We figure, as a couple living in the city with adequate access to mass transit, we can get by with a single car. Pete works on the Eastside and uses the truck to get to his job. I'm employed downtown and happily take the 15 minute bus ride to my job. I have actually turned down more profitable job offers outside of the downtown core because of my beliefs. In my personal life, if our car is in use, I take a bus to my destination or call a cab. Washington officials are always complaining about the number of cars on the road and the traffic and the effects on air quality. Here I am doing my best to keep one more vehicle off the road and how do I get rewarded? With freakin' jury duty in Boofuu! Angry! Going to buy a Hummer and drive it all over the highways at rush hour to get even! After watching an informative video entitled "How A Trial Works" starring the late Raymond Burr (no I'm not kidding), I was called for the first trial this morning. Kidnapping, domestic abuse, so on and so forth. The judge announced that the trial was to last two weeks and was there any reason any of the jurors couldn't serve. Well you can bet your sweet ass I raised my hand and told him everything I told you here, only with even less restraint. I even said the part about biting me and added a bit about how I served on juries in Boston and New York but how those courts were located conveniently on subway lines and didn't require a GPS system to locate. I went into a little diatribe about how Seattle is being forced to build a stupid monorail but it's not headed anywhere near these dismal parts and is essentially a waste of time and money. And then I told him this made me want to buy a Hummer or some other gas guzzling SUV as a finishing touch. Anyway, I was excused from service at 10:30 AM and was back at my desk in my office in lovely downtown Seattle by 12:30. The moral of the story you ask? Don't even try to make a city girl go to your overly Olive-Garden-covered oasis or she'll bring her Brooklyn attitude to town and lay the smackdown on your ass. 6:28 p.m. - 2005-01-12 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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