"the place of justice is a hallowed place"

several weeks ago i received a large manila envelope in the mail. it was thick, a little weight on it, with a little window with my clearly typed name peeking through. it looked official. not official, like those silly IMPORTANT NOTICES proclaim; where you have to rip each side off & then the top because, wait for it..."you are approved for a bazillion dollars!" woo...sign me up! no, this hefty little non junk, non ad, non bill was in fact a summons from the United States District Court-District of SC.  
O-FFI-CIAL! 
i opened it up to find this basically blank manuscript to  fill out...insert the bio of your life here! it started simple enough...name, residence, current job, past jobs, hobbies...wait, hobbies? um, o...k. then it got to the good stuff. have you ever been? have you ever done? do you know someone who is? would you be able to make a judgement based purely on facts? sure. enter samuel l. & a time to kill..."yes, they deserved to die. i hope they burn in hell!" totally kidding! but seriously, this packet of questions went on for pages & pages.
the helpful hub reminded me right away to fill this out & send it back...pronto! because they can come after you, etc. gee, thanks honey! that eases my mind. but i did complete it the next day or so & it hit the mail box. now, it was a waiting game...i had to call back in 10 days to see whether i was upstanding enough of a citizen to "potentially" be a juror. 10 days later (like a good girl), i did & i was! 


fast forward to this morning...frantically running to get downtown by 8:30 am. hardly any sleep, due to the fact that i may oversleep. anybody else do that? anyhow, because i'm terrified of being late & possibly being held in some sort of contempt (again, between what i know from tv/movies about law & the hub putting weird things in my head...i make myself crazy) i am on time...phew! & it's another waiting game. 


what's interesting about this particular morning was that every one there, or the juror qualifiers, were from SC...obviously. & since it was US District Court; that meant all over SC. almost every county was represented, and now i was surrounded by my fellow south carolinians. the large waiting area wasn't too bad. coffee, bottled water, television, restrooms. people able to move about freely & chit chat, but over all, fairly silent. 
so, i was born & raised here & i am totally used to the different accents/drawls. however, i never stopped to think how tricky the word "jury" is here in the south. it can either mean "i may have to serve on a jury" or "you been to that shop yet? they have some purty jury!" i also met a quiet talker/mumbler. could not understand a damn thing. i just smiled & nodded. THEN I HEARD IT. no way! i freeze, but a snicker escapes. i'm dying inside as i can't help but overhear a lady with...how does will ferrell put it? oh, yea...voice immodulation syndrome. now, i'm not heartless, & i think this is an actual disorder; it's just that in my head, all i could picture was ferrell's character 'jacob silj' on 'weekend update.'
i'll just say, thank goodness that i am always prepared with a paperback in the ole bag. and today was no different as my saving graces were the hilarious essays of sloane crosley...the 3 hours of just sitting & waiting to be called would have sucked without her!  
so finally, it was my turn to go in with my group. we did role call...you hear your number, stand, and say "present!" oh crap...my immaturity kicks in. attendance commences. "#14?"..."present." (don't say president, don't say president) "#127?"..."present." (please don't say president) "#131?"..."present!" aaand breathe...that was a close one. 
after the whole spiel of charges, case info, etc. we are recessed again for final selection. out in the lobby, i immediately gravitate towards a huge window...yes, some sunshine! & that's where i see the words large & bold.

the place of justice is a hallowed place 

                        ~Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626)


so, long story short...i know, too late. it wasn't yet time for #131 to serve her country. probably because i kind of wanted to! sometimes, an amusing day like this is just that, without any super fantastic ending. & maybe some day i'll make lady justice proud...or whatever!