Jury duty that is.  Last week it was time to fulfill that dreaded jury duty requirement.  I had taken advantage of putting it off once but my time was up.  I had reluctantly cleared my calendar for the week and planned to be able to work remotely as much as possible.

The system actually worked really well and with greater efficiency than frankly, I expected.  As a standby juror, I could check on the court website at 5 pm the day before to see if my number was called for the next day.  That wasn’t so bad really.  It afforded a chance to do some planning.

And then along came Thursday and my number was up.  The experience was surprisingly interesting and very professional.  The courthouse staff could not have been more respectful of the jurors, with some good humor thrown in which is always appreciated.  I had only two complaints once I arrived –uncomfortable seats and where was the coffee?

By mid-afternoon, I was one of about 30 jurors called into a voir-dire room where we met two lawyers, one on either side of a dispute.   I was taken by how professional and cordial the two lawyers were towards each other as they worked our room to find 6 (+2) jurors to decide the fate of their clients’ dispute.  For any number of reasons (you can imagine), I was disqualified early but was able to stay in the room until the jury was seated and everyone was dismissed.   As you also might imagine, given my line of work, it was super interesting being on the other side of the table.

And then, just like that, the clerk came in and dismissed our room for the day and the week.  We had all completed our service in less than one full day.

I can't say that I am rushing to return -- but spending a day fulfilling a civic duty actually felt good. Next time, I am going to just going to replace that feeling dread with some more advanced planning.