Jury Duty Blues... A Diva in Distress

Poor Kay.

Poor, Poor Kay...

My 24-year-old sister Kay just recently got over her Lemonade diet blues...

And last week, she had jury duty blues...

I remember when she first told me she had jury duty...

"Lee, I have jury duty!"
I cringed.
"What?" she asked...
"Girl, you better take something to do!!"
"Why?"
"Because they gonna have you sitting around all day. Take some puzzle books, a novel... something!"
She looked at me thoughtfully. "You think I can paint my nails while I am there?"

Oh God... I thought to myself. You are such a freakin' Diva...

I told her about my jury duty back in September 2004. It was the first, and hopefully the last, time I'd had jury duty. I was so excited about the whole thing. Even though it was September, I walked around and visited with all my co-workers, wishing them a very Merry Christmas and a Happy Easter, because I just knew that I was gonna get on a BIG time crime case that would take up months and months of my time. I was just so excited about getting away from my job for a long period of time...

I was so wrong. I didn't even get picked. As a matter of fact, I didn't even make it past the large jury pool room... I sat in the room from 8:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. (with an hour long lunch break). It felt like I was being held against my will or something, just sitting there ALL day. Not to mention that I have the attention span of a damn flea. My puzzle books and novels only held my attention for three or four hours...

So when they told us (there were twenty people left in the jury pool room; there had been about 150 that morning) that we were dismissed, we raced out of there like a herd of cattle. I'd never been so happy to run out of the courthouse and breathe Atlanta's smoggy air. It was almost like a scene from The Sound of Music...

Well, I conveyed all of this to my sister Kay... After our little talk, she grabbed her keys and headed straight for the Union City Wal-Mart. She returned with a delightful selection of puzzle books, etc.

Since I work in Midtown Atlanta, I told her that she could ride with me the next morning. We would drop her car off at the College Park MARTA station. Then I would drop her off downtown at the Fulton County Courthouse, and show her where the Five Points MARTA train station was located. This is the usual deal when Kay has to go somewhere new. Unlike our brother and myself, she loathes trying to drive somewhere unfamiliar. Such a diva...

I drove her past the house I'm buying downtown, just so she could see the progress, then we headed for the courthouse...

"Lee, do they have cans of air freshener spray in the bathroom?"
"What?!" I yelled, a little too loudly.
"I gotta use the bathroom," she replied.
I shook my head. "Why didn't you go before we left home?"
"I didn't have to go then," she replied...

Diva, Diva, Diva, I thought silently to myself.

Well, I dropped her off. I was at work, dredging through my boring day, when, at about 4:00 p.m., my cell phone rang. It was my sister Kay.

"I don't like this," she mumbled. "I'm tired."
"Girl, I tried to warn your butt! I told you to take something to do."
"Oh, I brought all my stuff with me. This is boring!" she whined.
I forgot that Kay too has the attention span of a flea...
"Just hang in there, girl," I encouraged...

Well, to make a long story short, Kay got chosen for an assault with a deadly weapon case. (She told me this when it was over). So for three days, she did her good citizen thang and served as a juror... And of course, we had a few more "diva in distress" conversations during this time...

She seem to be interested in her case, since it involved some dudes around her age. I was just hoping she wouldn't do the diva thing and walk out of the courtroom do to boredom...

She told me all about the case. I sat on the livingroom couch and listened. I didn't hear much of what she said though... It was kind of like the adults on The Peanuts cartoon show talking to me... Waah, Waah, Waah, Waah-Waah... That's all I heard, due to my flea-like attention span...

I'm just happy that she made it through...

And next time Kay??

Don't forget to carry a travel-size can of air freshener with you!!!