Courting Vacation

I came over to Eugene for Federal Jury duty but wasn't selected.  It was an interesting and annoying experience.  

I got to the Wayne Morris Federal Courthouse just before 8:00 am to join the folks waiting to enter.  The door opened just after 8 and we first went through security.  After that, we checked in with the clerk. She handed me paperwork for travel reimbursement, and I joined the others in the large jury gathering room. Chairs in the room were spaced 6 feet apart and we were all wearing masks.

Once everyone was gathered, we filled out forms as directions appeared on the screen at the front of the room.  After awhile, the clerk invited us to watch an informative and patriotic video about jury duty, how American it is, and what we could expect when we served.  Then the clerk gave us all numbers.  I was #3.  After more waiting, a black-robed judge appeared and told us that at this point, numbers 1-8 were going to serve if the lawyers didn't decide otherwise.

Then the plaintiff, defendants, and their lawyers entered.  First thing we all 18 of us had to do was answer 9 questions that included our names, who we lived with, what we did for a living, if we'd ever been involved in a civil suit, where we were from, and a few other things.  I found out that there were two lesbians who lived with their wives, one other person from Bend, a person from Coos Bay, a truck driver, a nut farm owner, and no one else with a PhD.  I said that I lived with my dog and the ghost of my dead husband.  That answer may have gotten me off the jury.  Or it may have been when I admitted my biases.

 As soon as I understood what the trial was going to be about (it's a work-related issue) I knew I was biased toward the plaintiff.  I wound up sharing that information during the large group questioning that occurred after we'd all gone through our individual responses.

 I thought the general questioning was very stupidly done.  A lead lawyer of the three who were gathered for each side asked questions of the entire group in a way that showed little understanding of human group behavior.  Like, "Does anyone here have opinions about other people's thoughts about other people?"  Really.  What does that even mean?  Of course, the three or four extroverts among us took turns answering these questions and the introverts stayed quiet.  Each side asked about biases.  

When the employer's lawyer asked about biases I finally raised my hand and said, "My dad was a communist and I was brought up to support workers and never cross a picket line."  When the lawyer then asked me, "Would it be possible for you to put aside your bias?"  I said, "I don't know, to be honest.  I can try, but I don't know."

So, I wasn't selected!

Instead of going back home, I decided to go ahead and take the week off, largely because I'd already paid for Winston care for the week.  Betsy and I went to the symphony in Cottage Grove on Monday night and went for a lovely walk around Alton Baker park yesterday.  So it's been fun to hang out with her.

Today I'm finally going to the beach after wanting to get there since December. I'll stay a couple of nights at the Sylvia Beach Hotel.