ACCOUNTANT BY DAY

Today I checked the mail from yesterday and found that I’d received a summons for jury duty—in federal court, not county or city court. At first when I saw that I’d gotten something addressed from the federal courthouse, I thought it was a subpoena for the case against that guy who scammed us back in September, but instead it was a summons for May 9 jury duty. I’m unsure exactly how I feel about this, because although I’ve always sort of secretly wanted to do jury duty, the case to which I’ve been assigned for potential selection is scheduled to be a ten week trial. I’m trying to picture the level of commitment this would entail, and envisioning how my life for the next ten weeks after May 9 might be if I actually get selected. I seriously wonder what the case is about, too, because I haven’t read about anything big in the news that would constitute a big federal trial, except for the fact that I know they’re retrying the Westar executives after the mistrial in December.

It might be interesting, but it’s not like I need a ten week trial to derail my life for the next 2+ months. I sent an e-mail to the jury clerk to ask what exactly kind of time commitment it would entail for a ten week case, but I think it’s tougher to get excused from a federal jury summons than from a regular municipal or county summons. You can only be excused if you demonstrate that serving would cause you “extreme hardship”, and I’m thinking that the District Court may not rule that my dual full-time work/school status constitutes such hardship. There’s an explanation of the penalties, which include jail time, to which you are subject if you skip out or claim extreme hardship when none exists. My company doesn’t pay makeup wages if you’re on jury duty, so that would kind of screw me. I guess I just won’t worry about it for now. I’ve got exactly two weeks until I even have to go, at which point there’s a slim chance that I’d even be picked to serve. If I did get picked to serve, I’d just have to muddle through somehow, but at least I’d have a seriously interesting case to serve on.

My roommate and I did yard work today, during which she mowed and I weed-whacked. I did a damn good job on the ditch, although my arm ached all day afterward. I felt kind of sick most of the day, maybe a holdover from my allergies yesterday and all night, and just lazed around.

Oh yeah, and I finally got my refund from Half.com after they determined that Rocco262 never sent me that stupid textbook. HAHA ROCCO, I WIN THIS ROUND!!