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to sit sit sit and sit in a very
uncomfortable blue plastic chair for six or seven hours makes
a guy want to HIT HIMSELF IN THE HEAD WITH A HAMMER over and
over again. but the lake county jury commission does not provide
the hardware. they provide a large white room full of these chairs.
they provide a rack full of nondescript moronic drugstore magazines.
they provide a few computers with games and stuff. they provide
nice clean restrooms and a wide range of take out menus from
"local" restaurants ("local" because a quick
walk through old downtown waukegan reveals... nothing much...where
are these restaurants?)
they do not provide hammers for
head-hitting... just as well.
of course, i didn't just sit.
at lunchtime i went for that walk. and while sitting i read stuff.
a big chunk of hirsch's How To Read a Poem, all of fugard's Master
Harold...and the boys, some stuff from the recent DoubleTake.
and then they sent us home. only two groups were sent out to
courtrooms.
people-watching in the jury assembly
room is not too much fun. a few guys looked like me. some looked
like they'd just bounced in from the construction site. mostly
it was women. one came in late and sat beside me and asked me
what she missed and how things would go (she was one of the first
called out). one sat on the other side of me. she had crutches
and - from her cell-phone conversation - a sick kid at home.
at least two-thirds of everyone had cell-phones... and used them.
one lady later sat beside me and read what looked like a sunday
paper supplement, only it was in russian or something cyrillic.
five, maybe six, people of color. this is lake county, i suppose,
but i wonder about the ethnic makeup of the defendants in this
building.
now i'm on this call-in program.
it's a bit like being on parole, i imagine. we call for a recorded
message at 11:15 to see if they need us at 1:30. and then we
call at 4:30 to see if they need us tomorrow. it could be worse.
i'm not up for the morning, but i'm guessing i'll be called back
for the afternoon or for thursday morning. and then i'll get
picked for a trial that will run for a couple of weeks. or so.
am i whining yet?
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