Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Doing Duty

I got the summons.

I'm supposed to start calling in on the evening of the 8th of March to see if I need to appear for Jury Duty. For anyone not doing the math, that is 13 days before my due date. I registered but stated (by pushing 6 or whatever) that I have a medical excuse. Today I presented New Doctor with the form that she needs to sign to verify that I am pregnant and therefore can't serve.

"Why can't you go to jury duty two weeks before your due date?"
"Well, for the obvious reasons."
"If I were you, I'd go. They're just going to dismiss you, and then you get out of jury duty for another year."
"I hadn't thought of it that way..."
"Think about it until your appointment on Friday. There is a $25 charge for us to sign the form."

I left feeling uneasy.

Uneasy feeling #1: $25 to sign your name?!

Uneasy feeling #2: I already punched in that I have a medical excuse. How would I reverse that if I decided to show up anyway?

Uneasy feeling #3: It's in Compton. You've heard of Compton, right? I don't want to take my children, unborn or otherwise, to Compton. EVER.

Uneasy feeling #4-6: I have to pee every 25 minutes or so, and that's with 46 days to go. At 12, 11, 10 days to go, if I actually get called in to be questioned, are they going to let me out to pee? Are they going to appreciate my squirming, my pee-pee dance, my snacking, my putting my feet up on the railing of the jury box?

Uneasy feeling #7: How can I take another day or more off work when I'm about to take 6 weeks off work?

Uneasy feeling #8: If I do get called and then go into labor, what happens to me if I don't show up? Are they going to arrest me and my newborn? Fine us for contempt of court? Am I going to have to pay the doctor anyway to sign my excuse form after the fact?

Uneasy feeling #9: I am worrying about this, and I shouldn't be worrying about anything but assembling cribs, hanging cute curtains, and eating enough Omega-3 fatty acids.

It's worth putting up with uneasy feeling #1 to avoid all the others, right?

3 comments:

Rebecca said...

yeah, i've heard that being pregnant is not a good enough excuse. they make you serve anyway. good luck though.

Anonymous said...

Have Senor sell a pint of blood. Pay the $25 to get the form signed (and that is crap). If you report, you are going to be uncomfortable; they are going to be uncomfortable and your fellow jurors will uncomfortable too.
By the way...I am bringing the original hosptial bill for Senor's birth...$760.00.

Anonymous said...

If they don't get back to you about the medical excuse in some way, I would guess that you need to show up.

When I was on the way to jury duty one fine morning, my car (Honda Accord: POS) died, totally died, on the way. I called . . . I still had to show up. First I had to have my car towed because it was in the middle of a busy street. Then one of my ex's employees drove me to the courthouse (in a very bad neighborhood in Chicago) and I had to sit there all day. I was in the last group to be called. When the judge questioned us, I had about ten strikes against me (knew lawyers, judge in the family, victim of crime, witness to crime, etc.), but I had to sit there until it was over, around 7:30 p.m. THEN I was dismissed. If I hadn't shown up, they would have arrested me. So, see what fun I would have missed.

I'm sure they will dismiss you once they see Zuul in all his/her glory.

Good luck!