Two Words

Jury Duty.  I arrived at 8:30 a.m. and left around 5:15 p.m.  Tomorrow I find out if I've been selected out of 50 jurors.  We filled out a questionaire and then we were questioned about it for hours.  This happens in front of all the other juror candidates and the 14 lawyers that were in the room.  One juror had a lengthy comment for every question the lawyers asked.  We were treated to his entire life story.  He was married at 17, divorced at 19, his ex wife did everything she could to keep his daughter away from him but now he and his daughter talk for 3-5 hours every week and they have a lot in common.  His daughter doesn't like her stepfather and she resents her mother for keeping her away from her biological father.  He is telling this to everyone, over 60 people.  He's a teacher of English, bilingual classes, Spanish, and he's a student government sponsor.  He didn't learn to speak Spanish until he was 30 but now he's certified to teach it.  His uncle was a cop.  What else?  He's responsible for 30 kids that failed the taks test and he has to get them ready to retest.  Really the only thing he didn't cover was his sex life and he probably would have been more than happy to inform all of us about it.  There were a couple of other crazies that I feel spoke more than was necessary just so they could get up and talk about themselves.  The trial involves several deaths due to a car wreck that occured in west Texas in 2008.  I was questioned about my baby and the importance of family and sweet Emily is always in my thoughts so, needless to say, I started crying, standing up in front of everyone.  And I couldn't stop.  I kept trying to pull myself together but I couldn't.  It took me a good 5 minutes to recover.  EMBARRASSING.  I felt like such a freak but another guy started crying when he was questioned about his kids so at least I wasn't the only one.  The judge told us we will know by noon tomorrow if we've been chosen.  The judge, by the way, said this when he addressed us first thing this morning, "Good morning.!!! I can't hear you!!!!  Let's try again!!! Good morning!!!!" I hated him immediately.