Luck of the Draw

I am one of those people that gets called for jury duty religiously.  The person who gets called before their "3 years is up".  The first two times I had jury duty I called the night before and was told I didn't need to report.

The third time I had jury duty, was December 23 and it was snowing and I had to report for service.  We, the jurors, sat around the court house until 10am when the judge came and told us the lawyers and other staff were held up because of the weather and we were dismissed "for the morning" and told to come back right before noon.  I went to McD's had a coffee and went over my Christmas plans.  We reported back, and shortly after noon we were dismissed for the day with a thanks for our service.

The forth time I got called for jury duty was this past February.  I really thought I was going to be able to call in and be told not to report as Husband was called for jury duty the week before and didn't have to report.  I was wrong, I had to report.  And not only did I have to report but I was selected and served on a jury.  The trial lasted the day and when I was out I was thankful that my term of service for over for at least another three years.

Then June rolled around and one afternoon I was checking the mail and pulled out an envelope addressed to me with a return address on it of "Federal Court System, District of Massachusetts".   I remember standing in the street staring at the envelope thinking "what the hell did I do?".  I slowly turned the envelope over, thinking there must be some confusion; and I saw the text through the back of the envelope "Federal Jury Duty Summons".  Really?  WTF?  I didn't even know they summoned people for federal jury duty.  But I was concerned, they had to excuse me as I just served state jury duty.  Apparently not; you need to serve state duty for 5 days in last 3 years to get excused.  Go figure.

Then it got better.  Federal jury duty isn't for one day, or one week, or even for one month.  It's for TWO whole months.  That's right folks, two months.  I've been on-call for jury duty all summer long.  No wonder it feels like I haven't had much of a summer.  Every Friday I have to call and see if I need to report the following week.  I've been calling, every Friday since before July 4; and every week they tell me to call back next week.  Aaaahhhhh!!  I haven't been able to plan anything all summer; because I just don't know what the next week holds for me.

Now work has gotten slow, and every Friday I say a prayer that my number is going to get called; and every Friday (so far) my prayers have gone unanswered.

Sigh... three more weeks left.