I'm on a jury

In my county, the jury waits in a seperate building before being called to the courthouse. In this seperate building, you can have your knitting, your pocket knife, your concealed handgun, and your gelignite explosives. They don't care. However, when you are called over to the courthouse, you are put through a metal detector and have to drop all the above, as well as belt-buckles, shoes, keys, and multiple metal face and body ornaments. I was allowed to have a ball point pen, but not sock needles. Grumble, grumble! However, we didn't get called till 11:30 AM, so I had three and a half hours of waiting time to knit.

We left all our contraband in the waiting room, and they lined us up and marched us from one building to the next in a long queue (thirty possible jurrors from which to select 12.) After processing us through the metal detector, they then marched us up stairs and filled the tiny courtroom. The judge thanked us very nicely for being good citizens, and explained the process to us. Then they excused us for lunch and told us to re-assemble in the waiting room at 1:15. At 1:40they again marched us to the next building, re-checked us through the metal detectors, re-seated us in the courtroom, and the prosecuting and defending attourneys introduced themselves, and asked us questions. Finally we were herded into a dinky jury room, and the attourneys made their choices. And since I got picked, I can't say anything more about that.

They did give us parking passes for today. They pay $10 a day for jury duty, and parking costs $4 a day. You sure don't do this for the money. But I will get a longish lunch hour in Scenic, historic downtown Oregon City, so I'll try to remember to bring my camera. The courthouse is a venerable old building with wonderful architectural details and worn granite floors. And one of my favorite pubs is a block away. Maybe I'll blow that $4 I saved on a nice hot bowl of soup.