Well, I feel all civic and stuff.

[kiya]

teinedreugan dropped me off at the court in Newburyport before he went to work today.


I went in and asked, "Is this where I report for jury duty" in the room labelled "Jury Room", got asked if I had my little piece of paper, said yes, showed the fellow the piece of paper, and got told, "Nope. Wrong court." The one I needed to be at was, he said, about a mile, mile and a half away. I said it'd be a nice little walk; he gave me directions. (Basically, go down to the lights and turn right; it's number 188. When I turned right, I checked for a house number. The first I saw was 106, the next 110; they continued upwards in twos and fours at relative random with the notable exception of the cute little walkup labelled, I believe, 118 1/2.)

It was a lovely day, and a lovely little walk; the walk would ahve been sufficiently more pleasant had I not felt like my kneecap was coming off. (I'm not mobility-impaired, exactly, but I'm frequently mobility-annoyed. There are two sorts of pain, the one I start out with which I walk out, and the one which I don't start out with which I walk in. By the time the knee stopped, the hip had started, but I was also essentially to the courthouse by then.)

Walked in, sat down (judge came in with a seein'-eye dawg. Erm. Ahem). Pulled out my breakfast and Jhereg, read. Got called up to turn in my little "I'm here" form. They showed us a nice little twenty-minute video about Our Jury System. Then they told us there was a case finishing up and they wouldn't know if they needed us for a while, so we had recess until 10:30. (Calling it "recess", while I know it's appropriate court terminology, meshes really oddly with the tone of the Our Jury System video, by the way; they did not, however, have swingsets.)

Everyone went out but me; I finished my milk and went out and gave teinedreugan a call, and noticed the commuter rail was just across the way (how convenient). Wandered about for a bit, went back in, finished Jhereg, started Phoenix (I read Taltos, Dragon, and Issola yesterday; it's a phase).

Judge comes in at about eleven, gives a little speech, says he's sorry he didn't get down to give the speech right after Our Jury System, told us that the fearsome presence of the twenty-odd strangers down in the jury room had intimidated 2/3 of the remaining cases into settling, and the last one needed a competency hearing scheduled now, so we could go home.

I asked the security guard how to walk to the rail station; she could only confirm where it was. Called teinedreugan. Wandered up to the lights, crossed, and saw a ramp up onto the platform down the way, which was very tidy and a good guess. Checked the schedule and saw that there had been a train departing at 11:06, and the next one was at 1:06.

Muttered. Wandered to a nearby shoppie, bought a Coke, kibbitzed with the clerk for a bit (I wonder when I learned how to do small talk? I never used to know), read Phoenix at the table. Bought train ticket there too. Took train home; finished Phoenix on the way, dozed and watched trees and ponds for the rest of the trip.

Had a lovely case of heatstroke as I got home, fled for air conditioning. Feeling less broiled now, and much much much less queasy though still iffy in the stomach regions. It is good to be in a place where I do not need to wear my shoes or my trousers.