Do NOT Go Back To Work

I had jury duty today. Two years in a row I've had to go down to the Third Judicial Court at the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice in Detroit. The same thing happened both times, I get there, check in, wait a couple of hours, my name doesn't get called, and I'm let go by 11am. They give you a letter stating that you were there all day (it's probably easier that way), and that's it. You're done.

Ever gone to jury duty before? I still haven't had to actually go to a courtroom and get questioned by a judge or counsel or anything. The whole thing is fascinating in a way. They tell you to get there by 7:45am even though the building doesn't open until 8am. This is just because they know Detroiters, and they know half of the people who were called up will be late. You wait in line outside the building, you finally get inside, and you have to go through a metal detector. The ladies have to put their purses on an x-ray conveyor, and then security still has to look through the purses anyway. I had the bad fortune to be in line behind a man who has obviously never had to go through a metal detector at municipal building before. He must've had three pounds in change in his pants pockets. Luckily I got passed around him by the guards because I was all set by the time I got to the front.

By all set I mean that I had my wallet out. I had taken out the silver dollar from 1900 that my grandpa gave me when I was a kid. I had my keys out, and I left the remote key fob thingy in my car because I don't know if it uses radio frequencies or if it's not allowed or whatever. I had no change in my pockets, no pens like normal. My lighter and cigarettes were back in the car. Plus, I took off my belt ahead of time because I know better. Unfortunately, I forgot to leave my pocket knife in the car, so I ended up tossing that in the trash before I went in. I was running late (cuz I'm a Detroiter, see?), and my car was a block away. It was a cheap knife anyway. I was afraid of trying to stash it in the landscaping somewhere for fear of looking like a terrorist hiding weapons. Is that too much hysteria? Tom Ridge did a good job at making the Office of Homeland Security one of the most irritating creations of the Bush administration.