Jury Duty

I was summoned for jury duty this past week. Here in California, we have what they call one day--one trial jury duty. You're on the hook for a week, and if you're called in to report for jury duty, you only have to hang out for one day waiting to be chosen for a jury panel, and if you're actually selected for a jury, you only have to serve for one trial. After either one of these takes place, you're off the hook for another year. I'd been summoned a couple of times before, but I was never called to a jury panel. This time, I was called along with 40 other people into the courtroom to select jurors for a DUI trial. They finished the tedious jury selection process yesterday, and I ended up being juror #3. Testimony was supposed to start today, so we jurors reported to the courtroom and waited outside for an hour or so while they took care of other business, and then we were sent to the jury room downstairs to wait for another hour or so. After a while, the judge finally came down and told us that "the case had been resolved." I assume this means they either dropped the charges or the guy pleaded. So that was my jury duty experience for this year.

While I was waiting in the courthouse for those three boring days, I played the look-alike game for various people milling about the courthouse. There were look-alikes for Karl Rove, John Bolton, Jada Pinkett-Smith, my neighbor Warren, Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo, Matthew Modine, the bald guy from the last installment of Top Chef on television, and a few others I can't remember right now. The best part of jury duty was the cafeteria. I generally like grill food and cafeteria food anyway, and this place was great. The first day I had a chicken taco that was big and juicy with delicious chicken and great toppings for about $3.50. The second day I had teriyaki chicken with fried rice that was almost as good for about $6.50. Today I had the fish & chips with French fries straight out of the deep fryer that was great for about $6.00. So if you're ever in the neighborhood, I recommend the Airport Courthouse cafeteria for lunch.