Here's to a FAST 90 days

I had to report for jury duty this morning. It's not that I don't want to serve and do my civic duty, but having a traveling husband and babysitting-in-a-pinch family who live no closer than 200 miles away just makes it difficult to get excited about scrambling around for last minute child care for the next several months. Why can't we adopt a system where we just pick a week that works in our schedules and plan to serve all week? Seems like that would be less chaotic than an "on call" jury system.

They do it a little differently here - they called 750 potential jurors to the courthouse this morning who will serve on-call for the next 3 months. They collected everyone's completed summons and then squished all of us into the courtroom for orientation. It was an interesting scene to witness while we were waiting for the judge to appear. The baliff was wearing a bullet-proof vest under his suit and seemed like a cross between a very short Oliver War*bucks-looking character, an intimidating-looking nightclub bouncer and even a little bit like the big bald guy on Night Court.

The jury pool was definitely representative of all walks of life. The ready-to-pop-pregnant woman sitting in front of me was worried she'd be called in and would have to bring her newborn baby while the lady sitting next to me was complaining because she'd have to drive 8 miles(!) to the courthouse and that was just too far when she was dealing with morning rush hour. The audience ranged from polished professional in suits, to farmers in overalls, to moms like me who were distracted by everything and even to a couple speaking Spanish who seemed to be unable to understand what the judge was telling us.

I found out this morning at orientation that in this state, the time frame to be "on call" for jury duty extends for 3 months and anyone from the jury pool can be called for duty anytime in that period with a mere 24- hours notice. Crazy! Eli's working in Phoenix the whole month of October and will be out of town most of the time until his project is open. Who can wrangle child care with less than a days notice in a time of year when the babysitters are in high school?! I was hoping to be excused today, but only 4 people in my group of 250 were turned away.

I also considered asking for a deferment until next year, but if we don't actually end up moving next summer like planned, I would just be delaying the inevitable. With my luck, our state probably has some rule that says I'd have to come back and serve regardless of where we live.

Luckily, the court seems to realize the hardship such an extended obligation causes, so it does allow jurors to request specific time off due to previous scheduling of vacations and doctors appointments. I'm crossing my fingers that a combination of the holiday season and the three weeks for which I exempted myself on the summons due to previous commitments will help deter the chances of me being called at all.