Surviving Civic Duty and Other Updates

For the first time ever, I had jury duty today. It actually wasn't bad; it was mostly interesting. But the case I was a potential juror for is going to last about two weeks. I cannot be out of work for two weeks right now. Cannot happen. Too busy. But apparently, the court does not consider that a good excuse. I sat all day listening to the judge and lawyers ask questions and dismiss people, but by 3:30, I still hadn't been called as one of the people to go sit in the jury box. I thought I was home free.

Then they called me to be juror #11. Nooooooo!

I thought for sure I was doomed to miss work for the next two weeks, effectively putting me behind so far that I would never catch up. But once I explained to the judge and lawyers that I once had to get an order of protection for Alek and that I had family members who had been victims of a serious crime, they got rid of me pretty quickly. Thus I was juror #11 for about 15 minutes. (As a side note, I didn't talk about my issues in open court -- well, I did about the order of protection, but that's because I forgot to talk about it when I was privately discussing the other matter with the judge and the lawyers. But I was very vague about the details when I had to speak about that in front of everyone. I mean, hello, some things are private. Of course, this concept is lost on many, as was all too apparent today. I actually didn't need to know that one potential juror is an alcoholic who used to beat his wife. That just doesn't seem like the kind of thing you bring up in a room with 65 of your closest strangers. Maybe that's just me.)

I actually would like to be on a jury one day and I think I could be an excellent juror. But the timing right now would be pretty awful. Call me back in about 10 years and we'll see.

The worst part of the day was lunch. I went to grab a bite to eat at a local, cheap place which I have been known to frequent. When I got there, there was an obviously mentally handicapped woman trying to buy a burger, but she was a dollar short. She was having a hard time understanding that she didn't have enough and that there wasn't a smaller, cheaper burger she could order. I felt bad for her. She was hungry and was at just about the cheapest place to eat in downtown Sacramento and didn't have enough money for her meal. So I offered to make up the difference.

The woman was very nice and grateful and it was no big deal at all -- I gave her a buck and some change so she wouldn't go hungry. It was such an easy way to be of service and I felt good that I had been there to help.

Then the most appalling thing happened. The woman working the register, someone who I have had several conversations with since I am a fairly regular customer, said, "I'll let you pay for her this time, but next time, you can't do that. Because this is my place and I don't want you doing that."

What?! I was seriously disgusted at that. I can't imagine what her problem was. She got her money, what difference does it make to her who it came from? The woman I bought the burger for wasn't dirty or loud or obnoxious or making other customers uncomfortable or anything. She seemed like your run-of-the-mill, sweet, mentally retarded woman to me. I was so taken aback at the time I didn't know what to say, but I intend to write a letter to this joint and tell them I am not coming back. I don't want to go to a place that can't appreciate a simple act of human kindness and that cannot treat the mentally disabled with respect, compassion and courtesy. Consider my business lost.

So we recently got back from our trip to Utah, during which we celebrated Alek's 10th birthday. I'll post about those later and include pictures.

I did want to share the exciting news that Fitz is now rolling from his back to his stomach. He started on Monday and now he is a pro. In fact, we can't keep him on his back. Funny thing is, he hates being on his stomach. Silly baby.

P.S. Just discovered that Fitz has a tooth, on the bottom front. It's not all the way up yet, but it has broken through the gums. Guess I was right that all the drooling he's been doing lately is because he is teething!