My jury saga...

And why I regret registering to vote. Not really, but at this point I swear I'm being picked on!
The first time I was called to jury services was the second week of June, 2006. Now, in 2008, I am on-call for my second time in a month. Okay, the first week was my fault, or was it?
So here is the deal, because I have no idea if California is "unique" in it's jury process or if this is across the board... I had to be on phone alert for the week of June 9-13th. This means I am to check online or via phone the night before at 4:30 pm to see if I need to report in person the following day, or any other instructions. On the eve of the 10th, my group says to check back between 11am-12pm on the 11th. Fair enough, I do so, and I read, report to said office 1pm the following day, print out my confirmation, etc. Makes sense right? I have time to arrange with work who know I'm on call, etc. So the next morning I take my time getting ready. I go and get out my little printout to put the address of the courthouse into my Tom Tom, and re-read the paper that says, report to court house TODAY (read: yesterday if you're paying attention) at 1 p.m. So, I have a moment of disbelief to myself, how in the world do they expect me to get from work (point A) to the courthouse (point B) in less than two hours on the same day? OH, and laughable, public transportation is advised. Did I forget to mention that I carpool to work? So, panic over, stupidity subsiding (I blame yesterday's mention of pregnancy brain) and anger settling, I call the commissioner's office and explain my situation. Well, of course I'm not the only one to do this I'm told. This happens all the time! They say send us an email with your information...explaining what happened and why, and give us an alternate week I can serve. So I do...I send my email, rather lengthy at that that...explain things, give my alternate dates (the week of July 4th, knowing it's a short week)... The jury's office answers me back rather quickly actually, and explains what I should do in the future, which is to call the night before if I have the same message to report during the same day.

Let me fast forward to yesterday. I am checking nightly again to see the status of whether or not I need to report or not. Low and behold, I get the message, check in tomorrow between 11:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. Well, clearly, I'm not ready to deal with this again, so I start calling when we get home last night, at 4:50 p.m. Whaddya know.... phones are closed for the day! Can you hear the words coming out of my mouth at this point!??? Fuckers! So, given that Sean and I carpool to work, and the price of gas, we decide that we'll check in with work in the morning from home, and wait until I can call the offices at 8 a.m. Finally at 8:01 a.m. I am able to get a person live on the phone. I explain why I am calling at this hour, and not 11 a.m... and what do I get???? Well ma'am, we don't get our court orders until 11, so there's nothing I can tell you right now. The best thing to do is if you are asked to come in today when you check back at 11 is to call us before 4:30 and we'll have you come in TOMORROW. Well, things I could have learned last night had the lazy city workers not gone home early or turned their phones off early!....Something I could have avoided if they responded to me with proper information earlier in the month....Ugh!!!! So now, I sit and wait another 20 or so minutes to see what my next battle is.

So much for doing the right thing! I'd love to hear other stories of jury duty if you have them. I'd like to know if I'm the only one mentally challenged enough to not grasp their concept, or what!?!

On another note...I have moved into a new stage of pregnancy: backaches. While waiting for jury office to open, I lay in bed with tears and alternating between ice pack and heating pad. Ugh...7 (or so) more weeks to go....