Sonoma County: Jury Duty

 I had the (dis)pleasure of serving as a potential juror the past couple of weeks.  For starters, parking up at the courthouse is awful.  I'm glad I arrived early as scoping for a parking spot took some time and then required a good walk to get to the building.  Reporting in was also like walking through a labyrinth trying to find the room.  Signage was non-existent.   Sorry, I don't hang out at the courthouse so I'm not familiar with the layout.

The room we were to report to had all the comfort of a 1970's version of the DMV with hard, plastic chairs, no windows, and fluorescent lighting.  We were packed in like sardines.  After watching a short video about the trial process and duties of a juror, we were shuttled outside only to stand in line for over an hour.  It was cold.  It was uncomfortable.  There were no chairs.  What were we waiting for?  We were waiting for security to open the door to the entrance of the courtroom.  It would have been nice if somebody told us that.  The entry of the lobby to the courtroom had security scanning and waving a wand over us like we were all suspected terrorists trying to board a flight.  

The fun did not end there.  I was one of the lucky ones who got inside the courtroom lobby where it was at least warm if not packed full of other potential jurors.  The rest of the poor slobs had to wait out in the cold.  Few got chairs to sit on in the courtroom lobby.   The rest of us stood up against the wall trying to find a comfortable standing position.  

At 11:00 AM the doors to the courtroom were finally opened (original reporting time was 9:30 AM).  The defendant was present along with his attorney, and the prosecution attorneys were also present.  At this point the judge tells us that it's a murder case and the trial will take about 6 weeks.  Looking around the room, I could read in the other potential jurors faces that they all lost their sh**.  Who has time to take off work for this?  About half of the roomful of potential jurors were going to claim a hardship.  For those who were not going to claim a hardship a 10 page questionnaire was handed to us to answer, leave there,  and were instructed to come back next week.

I did not want to attempt to claim a hardship.  So, I completed the questionnaire.  I was very specific and honest when stating that I personally knew one of the witnesses (which is a no-no) and that I'm also related to several members of the California Highway Patrol and the Petaluma Police Department (also a no-no).  I gave the names of my relatives and also how I knew the witnesses to dismiss the thought that I was just making it all up to get out of serving.  

I knew just based on that I would be disqualified.  Also, I knew too much about the case as I read about it in the local papers.  Mind you, I disclosed all of this in the questionnaire they had possession of for a week. 

Do you think the court would save me the time and tossed me out as a potential juror?  Oh no.  I had to come back and sit with a room full of people while they called out "random" juror numbers to come up to the jury box.  The rest of the potential jurors were to wait in case their number was called to come up to the jury box.  I was one of the potential jurors called up to the box. 

The prosecution asked a bunch of questions to the 21 of us sitting in the jury box.  It was when the defendant's attorney starting asking questions is where it went south.  He asked if we knew anybody in law enforcement and I raised my hand.  He started to poke me further and I just had had enough.   I said I was pro-law enforcement, that I could smell BS a mile away, and that people often lie under oath.  I  disclosed that I already knew too much about the case.  and.......No, I would not be able to give the defendant an unbiased trial.  

I was dismissed;)  .....but it was not without wasting a whole lot of time, not just mine, but all the potential jurors.  No wonder the public is cranky about serving as a juror.  The entire process was as cumbersome and inefficient as possible.  However, lawyers et al make $$$ by the hour.  That's why. 

Here's the case I was dismissed from (link below).  

https://www.petaluma360.com/article/news/standoff-in-el-verano-leads-to-arrest-in-petaluma-murder/

Elvis (2022) Elvis’s Childhood Scene

 My aunt (my mother's sister) had a HUGE crush on Elvis.  She had a room in her house dedicated to him.  Granted, she was a married woman with 6 kids who lived in rural North Dakota, so it was not like she was going to try to run off with him.  She was an innocent fan who appreciated him and had some fun in the process with decorating her shrine to him.  As I recall, it was quite impressive.  She called it the Elvis Room.  It was filled with memorabilia, records, posters, figurines, event tickets, buttons, and anything else you could think of.....yes, including a 1955 pink Cadillac hot wheel.  

Truth be told.  If anybody ever asked me what my dream car would be, it would be a 1955 pink Cadillac.  I know they are HUGE and expensive and that actually owning one is not in the cards for me, but I can sure appreciate them.  I did receive a little Elvis figurine and his 1955 pink Cadillac as a gift.  It's so darn cute!  So.... I did get my car.  Granted, it's just a miniature figurine but it's cheap to insure, cheap to maintain, fuel efficient, and requires no storage.  It sits on my bookshelf.  I love it when people ask me about it.  Here's a pic.

I guess where I'm going with all of this is that when MRH was here visiting, she asked me if I had ever seen the 'new' Elvis movie that came out about a year ago.  I had not.  Supposedly, it was based on Elvis's life story - the good, the bad, and the ugly.  It's long, about three hours, but we did put it on and watched it.  What I did not realize about Elvis was his roots in the Mississippi black community and how it influenced him.  No wonder he could move like he did and have soul.  No wonder white people freaked out.  Elvis was a white "black" man.  Just think....so many talented black men (and women) were overlooked just because of their skin color.  It took Elvis to don a suit of white skin to get the rest of white America to tune in and pay attention.  

Here's one of my favorite scenes:

Babysitting

 No, I'm not a grandmother yet.  Wait.  I do have a grand-dog.  Does that count as babysitting?  Here's a little something I'm going to share, but yet I feel shameful about it.  

One of my dear friends from Minnesota came out for a visit.  MRH has been struggling with:  cancer, depression, anxiety, divorce, ADD, bipolar, alcoholism and other addictive issues i.e., hoarding/shopoholic, joblessness, and....she is estranged from her children.  

Hence, that was the purpose of her visit.  Her daughter was getting married this past weekend and she was not invited to the wedding.  She needed a distraction, so she invited herself out here to stay with me for four days.

It was the longest four days of my life.  

For starters, she missed her flight on the way out here.  She needed to re-book.  Her original flight information she sent to me had her arriving at SFO at 7:00 PM.  I planned my day accordingly.  I was sitting in my office at 3:45 PM when she texted me that her flight was now getting into SFO at 5:30 PM.  What?  That's totally different than what she told me originally.  If her flight was now at 5:30, that meant I had to wrap up my work day and get myself down to SFO to pick her up.  

It's not so easy to stop my work day unexpectedly on a dime to accommodate her sudden change in her flight schedule. 

I then texted her to confirm that she now had an EARLIER arrival time than what the original plan was.  I knew she had a layover in Denver, so I asked what her flight number was so I could track her flight.  If it was running late, there was no need for me to dash from my office to SFO.  

Well, her flight was LEAVING Denver at 5:30, not arriving at SFO at 5:30.  Adding to that, her flight had a stopover in Colorado Springs and  Phoenix before arriving in SFO at 11:00 PM.  She had no clue she was on the Southwest Airlines milk run that had so many stops before getting to SFO.  

If I did not check online for her flight status, I would have arrived at SFO at 5:30 PM looking for her not knowing that was the time she was leaving Denver for the other flights before arriving here.  

That was just the start of the visit.  

It went downhill from there.  She left yesterday - not without chaos and drama - and I'm exhausted. 

Yes, she is a wounded person.  Yes, she has many, MANY issues.  However, she is reluctant to take action to improve her situation.  I'm not sure if she's taking too many medications or if it's her mental illness taking over or what. 

A few years ago when all of my Minnesota Coven were at TYD's cabin in northern Minnesota I had brought my tarot cards.  I remember reading MRH's cards at her request.  I did not like what I saw.  I sugarcoated it because what if I turned out to be wrong?  I would not want somebody upset and end their life based on a tarot card reading from a novice.  I'm not about to say to somebody who may not be ready (nor want) to hear, "Gee,  looks like your life is going to suck going forward and I see a dark ending."  

But...that's what I saw in the cards.

 

Fans Only

 There is a trend with the younger ones these days.  They are shunning traditional jobs.  They don't want to slave away at a soulless corporation for a pittance they can't afford to live on.  They don't want to break their backs at a thankless job where customers/clients treat them like they are invisible and disposable.  

Here's their answer:  Create a porn site and rake in big bucks.