Jury Duty
I was called for jury duty this week. It's my second time ever being summoned, but the first time it was cancelled as I was arriving at the courthouse. This time I called the number the night before, and sure enough I needed to report. I was especially nervous because I had just heard my friend's experience of being on the jury of a brutal murder. Being the small town that it is, I figured no huge cases would be tired here.
It's different in every county, but in our county they had everyone file into the actual courtroom and sit in the audience. There were at least a hundred of us. We all had to rise when the judge walked in, and be sworn in. He told us that there were supposed to be two juries picked for two trials that day but one settled as we were all arriving. He read the charges against the defendant, and my stomach dropped. I can't say the details of the case, but I can tell you I 100% did not want to sit through that trial and hear any of it.
A group of 15 or so were chosen from what I think was a bingo machine, or something similar. They had to go up the jury box and read off a laminated card answering general things about them. I felt so bad that they all had to speak out in front of the entire silent room. I will say that it was absolutely fascinating to hear details about people. It really proves you cannot judge people based off how they look.
We started at 8:30 and it took until lunch time for them to get done questioning that group. The judge and lawyers deliberated for a little bit and they picked only 5 people! The groans were very apparent. We were dismissed for lunch, and then we had to start the whole process over again. The 2 women on my right were picked for the next group so I was definitely on the edge of my seat.
It was about 3 in the afternoon before they were done questioning that group. The questions were easy, things that you'd know the answer to, things about your life. But then every once in awhile they'd throw a weird or wordy question in there. You could tell that a few of those types of questions were directly related to the case. We got to see some 'Objection!' action to a few of the questions which livened things up a bit. I was sure that we'd be there for-ever, but they filled the rest of that jury with that group.
I didn't even get called up! While super interesting, I wish the process was more efficient. There was no need for all of us to be cooped up at the courthouse all day long. Plus, our courthouse is over a hundred years old, and so are the benches we sat on all day!
Disney Annual Passes
We've had Disney passes for almost our whole marriage. We got engaged there, and spent part of our honeymoon there so it's quite special to us. I think it was 2 years ago when we stopped our passes. There was a ton of construction happening and we were really too busy to enjoy going all that often. Plus even though the Florida resident passes are cheap, especially when you pay month to month- going to the parks is quite the expense.
Anyways, we are planning on going to Disney next month with Blake's parents. When looking at the 1 and 2 day passes, I was floored with how expensive they are! I guess I had forgotten. The Florida resident annual pass wasn't that much more, and we decided to go for it! I'm really excited! We haven't seen any of the Pandora section of Animal Kingdom and the new Toy Story land opened up this summer. We already have plans to go 2 more times after the trip with Blake's family, so it's already been worth the money.
Working From Home
My commute is killer. It's an hour each way, and the only reason I've been doing it so long is because I love my job. Also, it's only 2 or 3 days a week. We've been talking about making some changes for a few months, but this week we actually started officially making the move to working from home. It was very daunting at first, but things started falling into place relatively easily. We have a few kinks to work out, and some experimenting to do with some logistics-but I think this should all go down in the next month or so.
I'm really excited at the prospect of working at home. I love being at home and we already have a really good office set up. My pugs will appreciate the company too, I'm sure! There is a measure of down time at work too. It can be either slammed or slow. On those slow days it kills me to basically spin around in my chair. If I'm at home I feel like I can be productive at work and then use the quiet time to do stuff around the house.
Our home office has already been upgraded, because we just bought 2 monitors for the volunteer construction work we've been doing. Blake is getting a new office at work sometime in the near future and he plans to take all of his Star Wars collection there. So we will have to do a little redecorating. It will be nice to make it a more neutral space-especially if I'm going to be in there all the time.
Travel Plans
As a person who thrives on routine, and being at home...October might just kill me! We have something going on every. single. weekend! I told our house sitter just to move in for the month, it will be easier considering he will be here more days than we will!
I've already mentioned Disney, and we are really looking forward to it! October is my favorite time to go to the parks. It's still pretty hot, but not brutal.
We also have a quick trip down to West Palm for some training. The class is only one day, so we are going to spend the rest of the time at the beach! Seriously, I have NOT been to the beach yet this year. It's been killing me! We just haven't had a chance to go. Excited doesn't even cover it!
Mid month my mom and I signed up for a 12K in Amelia Island! I feel woefully unprepared, but we will get through it! It's such a beautiful area, and I think we should have some beach time that weekend too.
Finally, at the end of the month we have a 3 day training class that will make me feel much more qualified for our assignment. For two people with zero construction background, we need all the training we can get.
I'm praying to normalcy throughout the rest of the month so that we can get through all of that! No more things like jury duty, please!! I even had to adjust my work schedule for the month because of all of these travel plans. I'm so grateful to work with such flexible people! I know I either handle a busy schedule like it's nothing, or the exact opposite-I flounder. It has everything to do with proper rest and having things organized. I'm going to really try to set myself up for a good month despite everything we have going on.
Leave a comment below and tell me what your life has looked like lately!! Have you ever been on a jury? What do you think about the idea of working from home? Would you thrive in that work environment or do you need to physically go to work? Any fun travel plans coming up?
