Jury Duty

Today I had to go to jury duty. I usually have my shrink write me an excuse note to get me out of it but today I decided to do my civic duty and I headed up to Oakland. Well, I decided to do my duty and I really didn't think they'd call anybody in the week between Christmas and New Years. Well, they did! Now, I have some directional issues (not from the stroke - I've always been challenged in that area) so the hub came with me to see that I wound up at the courthouse and not Jack London's reconstructed wilderness shack. After an initial false start, he got me turned the right way and we ended up at the correct locale.


After two hours of sitting and making fun of the other people in the room, making trips to the bathroom and watching the surprisingly non-boring orientation video, we got a break. A two and a half hour break! We walked to Peerless Coffee where our daughter used to work and got a cup then we found a bathroom in the grocery store next door. Off to Jack London Square where we visited the above mentioned cabin and went to the potty in Barnes and Noble. Then we started searching for a lunch venue and stumbled upon the Legendary Palace.


Considering the fact that its legendary, and a palace, I'm surprised I'd never heard of it before. Its a dim sum restaurant, which is some of our favorite Chinese food! The cool part about this place is that its freaking cheap! Our other favorite dim sum place, Yank Sing, in San Francisco would cost twice as much. Although they do have a much wider selection. Limited selection notwithstanding, the food was delicious. When we were done eating we took a picture of the really cute family at the next table.

They were an elderly Caucasian man and his Asian wife with their two gorgeous granddaughters. One was college age and the other was probably an eighth grader.They kept passing the camera around so we offered to take a picture of all of them. What a bunch! I think the old couple was a wartime romance of some kind. They are visiting from Canada for the holidays (they told me that - the rest I figured out.) and giving lots of advice to the older girl (I got that by eavesdropping). We picked a great place to have lunch! Didn't go potty there, though.

Back at the courthouse, I kissed the hub goodbye and he headed back to BART. Then I stupidly took the stairs up to the fifth floor where I sat in the hardest chair on the oldest courtroom in Northern California. Yes, the Hemorrhoid Maker was also skinny. When I saw a lady with a giant ass unable to wedge herself into an identical seat, I thanked the good Lord that my flab was gone. By the time I caught my breath, the judge was giving us our instructions. Don't talk, read, Google or tweet about anything that goes on in in this courtroom. (Including that the flag needs a good pressing?). Then we went back downstairs to fill out a really big questionnaire.

We have to go back in a week to get interviewed. Since I have friends who are cops and lawyers AND since my handwriting is illegible (since the stroke ) I'll probably get kicked, but I gotta say - that trial looks juicy and it would be cool to serve on it. I mean, civic duty doesn't have to be boring, does it? Plus, the judge seems like a really nice guy, and the bailiff is a total biscuit. Really, not boring at all.