Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Where'd Tuesday Go?

You are hereby summoned: Jury Duty.

The summons was for stand-by, which meant calling after 4:30 p.m. the day before to learn IF I had to trek nearly 16 miles to the county courthouse near Chicago's "North Shore".

The recorded message said, "if your last name begins with B as in Bravo through and including Z as in Zulu, you must appear." And so, I had to prepare myself for the trek. The public transpo website provided several public transpo options. All those available to me meant and hour and forty-five minutes travel time.

Thanks to several road construction zones, the commute actually took two hours and thirty minutes. Lovely.

Six hours after clearing security and checking in, I was released with the thanks of the court and a check for my time and trouble, $17.20. We, the prospective jurors were told that four trials were scheduled; two criminal, two civil. All four cases settled without the need for a jury.

The return commute home was shaved by only 30 minutes.

Worn out, I ate. Slept. Which of course meant that I was awake at 2 a.m. listening to (if not sneaking a peak at) "Jaws" on television.

A Tuesday lost. A weary Wednesday.

. . . to help out thEBalzie, the actor is currently in rehearsal for "Lobby Hero", he is playing William. And speaking of, he just closed a run of a Stoppard play and begins rehearsals for the next, August Wilson's "Radio Golf" days after "Lobby Hero" closes. In between, he's auditioning, auditioning, and auditioning.

6 comments:

  1. Glad you didn't have to get on a "panel"!

    Do you think Actor Man would get to meet August Wilson?

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  2. Anonymous11:56 PM

    Wall Street gets a billion dollar bail out and you get wasted time and $17.20. It's hard not to be a nihilist.

    Very exciting how busy M is with all his acting work. He will look back on these days with fondness. He should keep a journal.

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  3. Anonymous8:37 AM

    $17.20!!!

    We only get $12 here!

    ReplyDelete
  4. We only get $10 but our public transpo sounds more efficient.

    Go ActorBoy Go!!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I confess that the few times that I have been called for jury duty, I never was picked because I was honest about my strong opinions. I used to work as a jury consultant and I remember how I used to always advise to skip those with strong opinions because they tend to stick to their guns and not be swayed.

    So...yeah...it works.

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  6. @ kmae: Actor would have LOVED to meet August Wilson. Unfortunately, Mr. Wilson died a few years ago.

    @ theEbalzie: indeed.
    Yes, journaling. He should. He does.

    @ ncp & e: 12? 10? feeling a tad better about the 17.20. . . daughter took 10 off my hands and 4 paid for lunch today. so, there's that. ;-)

    @ maria: me too--one of the few times I made it to voir dire some years ago. civil. accident 18 wheeler vs. a mazda (or something like that)/.

    ReplyDelete

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