Howdy Duty
Well, jury duty was a bit of a letdown. I wasn’t sure how big of a deal being punctual was, so I took off work with what I thought was plenty of time to get to the courthouse by 1pm. I then spent 40 minutes getting progressively more nervous as multiple buses failed to show up. Finally I walked over to a nearby hotel and got a cab for the first time in my adult life. It felt kind of decadent to have someone else drive me somewhere. It was 3 minutes after when I got downtown, but there wasn’t any reason to worry; the line for jury duty was doubled up on the sidewalk. We all shuffled through security and into the courthouse.
Once inside, I couldn’t find signs or anything to tell me where to go. I kind of wandered around feeling stupid and following people who looked like they knew where they were going until I realized that a lot of the same folks from the sidewalk were lining up outside a door that said “Jury Selection” or something like that. I queued up. After a few minutes, someone came out and went down the line telling us that they had enough people and they didn’t need us. So I left and took the new light rail for the first time since it opened back to work.
It weirded me out that I didn’t have to sign in or anything, so I looked online later that night to confirm that I’d done the right thing- which was a good thing, since it said I needed to show up again the following Monday. This time I didn’t have any bus issues and got downtown a bit early. I found the same room and picked up some forms at a kiosk as indicated, then sat down with a few other people to wait. I probably sat for about 20 minutes or so as people shuffled in and sat down. They had their jury badges pinned on, so, not wanting to be left out, I grabbed a badge holder myself and stuck it to my chest. I finally noticed that there was actually a desk with some ladies working behind it that weren’t there when I came in, so I rolled up and asked if there was anything I needed to do; sign in, fill out, whatever. They asked if I’d been there on Friday, and when I said yes, they told me I could go home. I did not need to check in, sign anything, etc. They seemed a bit exasperated that the municipal website had told me to show up today, and confirmed that I had in fact fulfilled my civic duty. So I took the train back to work again.
It just seems weird that the government takes it on faith that I showed up. But whatever.
I watched Casablanca over the weekend, in my continuing quest to work through the American film canon. It was enjoyable! I liked that back then, they just wrote dialogue like everyone was just flawless and clever all the time instead of being anything like people talk in real life. Other than the “You played it for her, you can play it for me.” (which everyone remembers incorrectly), and the ending scene with the speech near the plane, I really didn’t have any idea what to expect from it. I don’t think I’ll ever watch it again, but I definitely don’t feel like I wasted my time.
Last weekend was another protest march. I didn’t go to this one, which made me feel a bit guilty. My wife wasn’t feeling up to it, and I didn’t want to go without her. I figure it’s not like the protests will dry up any time soon; I’ll have my pick of marches to attend in the near future. All kinds of shit happened this weekend, with the refugee ban and all that. Really awful, history-making shit coming out of the white house. So much, and so relentlessly terrible that it’s hard to imagine anything I’m doing making any difference at all. At first I was trying to keep at least a little bit of a positive outlook, but now I’m wondering if I just shouldn’t go for grim determination. The sort of depression that gets things done- like when you know the universe is cold and uncaring, but you keep shouting into the void anyway because fuck you, that’s why.
Anyway, here’s a stupid meme that was going around Facebook a couple months ago, but it took me this long to come up with an answer. “Describe yourself using three fictional characters”:
Captain N the Game Master
Beat from Jet Set/Grind Radio
and Moss from the IT Crowd.
Automated Lagomorph 