Things that annoyed me about jury duty yesterday
1) Taking the train downtown. OK, the train ride itself wasn't that bad. But the train talks to the passengers. CONSTANTLY. It told me what side the doors would open on. It told me that eating and smoking are not allowed on the train. It told me not to place objects on the seat next to me so that others can sit down. It told me that priority seating is given to the elderly and handicapped. And it told me these things over and over and over. I GET IT.
2) There are individuals who talk as incessantly as the train, in situations where it is not. appropriate. Picture a large room, 9:00 in the morning. It is filled with potential jurors who are half asleep and grumpy due to the necessity to upset their routines and drag their asses downtown to sit in a large room with a bunch of other half-asleep, grumpy potential jurors. They are not talking. They are reading, sipping coffee, staring off into space. Imagine one gentleman with a deep, gruff voice who is engaged in conversation with they guy next to him. Except, it's not a conversation as much as a monologue. For 45 minutes, he doesn't seem to stop even for a breath. I have no idea what he was talking about, but I just wanted to read my book. I don't mind a bit of buzzing conversation, but one person's voice should not drown out the white noise of the crowd. As much as I was hoping not to get on a jury, I was grateful to get called into a court room. Dude. SHUT. UP.
3) Rules like: You may not use a cell phone even to text message, but if you want to use a laptop computer, that's ok. Well, I don't have a laptop, but I would have loved to use that time to send some e-mails from my phone. Why in god's name should that be against the rules? They probably don't want the phones ringing, so why not make it a rule that your phone can't ring? I could mute it and still send my e-mails. I just hate arbitrary, unfair, illogical rules. :fist:
4) The final annoyance was an understandable thing, but still irked me. A bunch of us were called into a courtroom, the judge explained it all to us and selected 12 people for questionning (for a 6-person jury), and he and the lawyers asked them a bunch of questions. This took an hour. We were given 1 1/2 hours for lunch. I left, got some lunch, came back, the judge walked in and sent everyone home except for the 6 they selected from the 12. So, that was an extra hour an a half I did not need to be sitting in a food court trying to kill time and eating overpriced food. I know, I know, I should have brought my lunch. Stupid me. Also, I realize that they needed time for the sidebar selection discussion, but it was still kind of annoying.
On a brighter note, I didn't get selected (although I wouldn't have minded too much, since the trial was expected to be over that day), and the $17 they gave me covered my morning coffee, my train ride, and my lunch. So, I guess it wasn't all bad. :smash:
