| | Dream last night was about me getting a short list of German words used in the movie, Bruno, with English translations. It also had a bit of a Super Mario World feeling to it... like there was a tournament going on. I don't remember that part of my dream, but yeah. I woke up at like... 5:45AM because I learned last night that the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana wasn't too far away. I went downstairs and poured myself some Kellogg's Chocolatey Delight cereal and then got dressed all nicely and did my hair. I left the house at like, 6:42AM and listened to the Kevin & Bean Show, talking about how today was the memorial service for Michael Jackson. Oh yeah, he's been dead for a week already. Hmm. Anyway, I followed the driving directions I wrote done from the lady I was on the phone with last week and like... found it. I saw a bunch of people walking with their summons in their hand. I parked in the 2nd level of the stadium parking garage and followed the crowd with my laptop backpack and my summons.
I entered the Central Justice Center and was kinda... excited actually. I felt kinda happy that I was appearing. They had airport security there and so I had to put junk in a box and put that and my backpack into an X-ray machine. I followed people to the second floor and entered the Juror Assembly Room. Iwas instructed to grab a badge holder and a brochure about Jury Duty service. This lady told everyone to remove the badge from our summons and turn in our summons to window number 1. I did that and quickly went to the computer desk next to the window. Luckily I was early enough to grab a table before more peopel came in. A lot of people came today... and came late actually. I arrived at like, 7:18AM and like, they were still checking in people well after 7:45AM. I tried to access the free wireless interweb they got going on, but didn't have the passcode. I, instead, tidied up my desktop by moving all the misc junk into one folder to clear some space. I then worked on an old journal entry I haven't finished writing yet about my first day at Jay's house.
So this man asked the guy at the desk right in front of me for a copy of the passcode. The guy handed the man a piece of paper with the code on it and I was all like, "whoa, I need that too!" and so after the man was done copying stuff, he handed it to me and I copied down the code: OCJ[four six nine one four] (I didn't want to actually type the numbers in case someone googles it and like... I get in trouble for it--I doubt it though) and handed the paper back to the guy in front of me. So I tried logging in and like... it didn't work and so I continued to write that journal entry about Jay's house.
So orientation started at 8:19AM. It was a powerpoint and was sorta like a verbal version of the brochure we all had. The lady spoke and whatnot and then paused for a bit to let Judge Monroe talk. He read some letters about some previous jurors' testimonials on Jury Duty service. I laughed when he read one about someone loving Jury Duty soooo much that s/he told all his/her friends to do it. Wow, what BS! But yeah, Judge Monroe was a funny guy. He actually read a bad letter about how this guy was mad because the case was more of a personal level and not about the evidence. He also wanted to get Judge Monroe fired. Heh heh. But yeah, he also told us a joke about God asking this one dude awaiting Judgment why he was the only one standing in the line of people who aren't told what to do or something (the punchline was something about "my wife told me to stand here"). After Judge Monroe left, the lady continued to do the powerpoint and like... then we took the Juror's Oath and all had to stand with our right hand held up. We were done with orientation.
During the orientation, however, I got a phone call from an 877 number and like... listened to the voice message. It was a recording of someone singing. Wtf? Weird. Anyway, almost immediately after orientation, there was an announcement being made and all the people whom had just left into the cafeteria had to come back to the assembly room. Apparently they needed volunteers to do a 23-day trail. How ridiculous! Surprisingly, a lot of people went in line. Anyway, I tried to connect to the interweb but it still wasn't working. Hmm. Anyway, they started calling out names and I was relieved that my name wasn't called. Excellent. I continued to type and pretty much finished all I could without access to the interweb. I then decided to restart my computer before complaining. After restarting, I got it to work! Awesome!
At 10:06AM, I sent Tiff a response to her note about how she got stuff at the Pokémon Center... but not my Corphish because they really didn't have much of a selection on pokémon that weren't very popular. How... disappointing. I told her I would be googling ways to get rid of Jury Duty until I was called. But yeah... it felt like the Holocaust or something and if my name was called... I'd be a prisoner. Hmm. But yeah. I described the place like an airport with the tons of chairs for people to sit and junk... but less "fun." It was much smaller than an airport too, so yeah. Whatever. We were released on break and so I went out to the patio (which happens to be the place where people could go and smoke) and called Joann Fabrics. Julie and Ola weren't there and so I asked to speak to Mary. Mary was too busy and so I spoke to Joe who told me that there was no way to get out of Jury Duty. He said that he hates cops and hates Jury service and that he was kept for 3 days and was kicked out by day 3. He said that I might have to call in tomorrow... but like, I don't wanna do Jury Duty anymore. UGH! I hang up and went back to my laptop to try to find the solution on the interweb.
I educated myself by learning a few ways to get out of Jury service when called. The most effective way, I've learned, was to talk about Jury Nullification during the screening... which is a legal thing that the court people don't want Jurors to know about. It's pretty much the ability to say the defendant is not guilty because the law isn't constitutional or just. This gives jurors veto powahs, since we coudl say we don't agree with the law... and therefore the defendant is not guilty. That seemed pretty cool. Other ways to get out was to be associated with a lawyer or a cop and be informed about how the law works and junk. Another one was to show how dumb you really are, be racist, emphasize how much you don't wanna be there, or say something about how you are being held against your will in this mandatory "civic duty." There were a lot of creative stuff and like, I read them all. I also went up to the windows at the other side of the room to validate my parking pass. It was a stamp and I got the number 32 stamped on my pass. Cool.
At around 11:45AM, there was an announcement saying we might not be staying the whole duration and might be let out before 5PM. A few people, including myself, cheered! Anyway, we were dismissed to lunch until 1:15PM. My name hadn't been called and I was still kinda worried. The guy on the computer desk in front of me was called and like... he left a while ago. I left the building and went into the courtyard(?) and called Phoebe to try to reach Dominick. I left a message about how Jury Duty sucked and how I wanted to talk to Dominick to see if he knew enough government crap to get me out of Jury Duty. I then returned to my laptop and occasionally checked to see if the line at the cafeteria had died down yet. It wasn't until like... 12:47PM when I fell into the burger line and got myself a delicious Mushroom Swiss burger with French fries. I was tempted to get myself some coffee, but got hot chocolate instead. The guy in front of me was gonna use his business credit card in the line I was in, but when the other line clear up, he abdicated and went to that line. He left his card on the counter and like, I pointed to it when he was looking for it. Heh heh. I paid for my food using the leftover money I used to by groceries with last night. The lady said that it was $8.18 and when I gave her my 10 dollar bill... I only got coins back. The real cost of my food was $9.18 and so she gave me the correct change... but read the register wrong. OH WELL. I went back to my table and munched, yo.
So there was an announcement at 1:29PM when lunch ended (which was 14 minutes late, but I ain't complaining). We learned that the courts don't need any jurors at this time and will tell us by 2:30PM if we could go home early or not. Cool. So I kept reading the tips to getting out of Jury Duty (read over 100 different scenarios and excuses... totally serious) and noticed that the channel on the television screens at the other side of the room was ABC Family and Sabrina came on at 2PM! Oh awesome! I didn't miss it! But yeah, by 2:49PM, we were let go! I cheered! We all cheered! We were done, thanks to the One Day, One Trial thing! So all we had to return our badge holders and pick up a certificate of completion at window 1. I walked with a group of people to the parking garage and continued to follow them up the stairs, only to realize that I parked in floor 2. MY BAD! I eventually got out of the parking garage and followed my driving directions in reverse... only to recognize a dentish building near the Bowers Museum and know exactly where I was. I still continued following the directions in reverse though, since I missed my "left turn." It's cool though, because I got home at 3:36PM! Excellent!
I decided to cash in my Joann Fabrics check and so I changed my clothes and drove to the US Bank in Lake Forest. It's still Downey Savings at heart... but yeah. I went inside and endorsed my check. Some kid, probably 11 years old, was all staring at me for some reason. Yeah... stop? I cashed in my check and got my $46.80! WOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!11 I then drove home just in time for The King of Queens at 4:01PM. I ate the rest of my Kellogg's Chocolatey Delight cereal and like... made myself some wheat toast too. I then tried drawing a Camp Lazlo drawing for tomorrow's Camp Lazlo Day obligation to CLF and like... realized that my cartoon gestures have become... long and skinny. It's not the style I developed last summer... and I don't know if I'm willing to accept the change. Regardless, I completed my idea on paper and will be transferring it onto my laptop when I felt like it. I tried to take a nap on the floor during Everybody Loves Raymond, but was having a difficult time doing so. I made more wheat toast during The King of Queens and my mom came in. I got dressed and drove to Irvine, FINALLY getting my nice parking space in the corner.
I had bad hair, but whatever. I left after the service and arrived home by 8:45PM. I then went on my laptop and like... got a note from this kid who likes my art but types almost as annoyingly as Almario (except he's got a excuse to type like an idiot; he's like... 15 or something, but still). That same guy would comment on my front page a lot and the comment he made last night was weird. He was saying that "something" about me was driving him crazy and it was because he was jealous of my artwork. Wtf? He then said that he wouldn't mind it if I hated him because he's got a lot of haters and asked me if I understood. WTF!? Anyway, the note was about him saying the same thing and how he thinks I'm just this SUPER AWESOME ARTIST when really I'm just a student who isn't really all that good AND hasn't been having fun drawing lately because of last semester. I told him practice makes perfect, there are many other artists out there better than me, and that he shouldn't be jealous. Sheesh... this guy is really annoying. I don't want fans! I DON'T WANT FANSSSSSSSSSS!!!!1 Tomorrow I'm gonna go to work at 1PM to 5PM and give Phoebe a call that night.
Today was boring.
People who support me:
Tiff
Leanna
Phoebe
Molly
Dominick.
~Netaro" |
| | Posted 7/7/2009 10:25 PM - 1 View - 0 eProps - 0 comments
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