In my problems are small world: I got summoned for jury duty Wednesday. I had a moderately sized meltdown about it a couple of weeks ago when I heard, and then I basically dealt. But I still feel the same way about it. But I guess I`ve been covering well enough, because the day before, tomorrow, the SO scheduled not one but two recording sessions. We work together in the morning, then he teaches alone in the afternoon, then two sessions. So I will be alone in the house stewing about it all night.
 
I realize it will likely be no big deal. And I may not end up having to serve. But at a minimum it will be two hours on the road on a workday and a lot sitting around with People. And I have radical views about prisons, which I will either have to put on the record or ignore, and my brane just will not quit with the Responsibility Of It All. Sheesh, brain. So help a sister out, peeps, what should I expect?

I do not like dogs who lick. At all. Though I have one and I hate it.

msbelle, yay for a normalish weekend with mac! Progress rocks!

Not sure how reliable ancestry.com is, though.

About as reliable as Wikipedia, and for the same reasons.

It's a good starting point, though.

Liese, I've been called for jury duty 3 times since I've been in LA. I never get chosen because I have sort of extremist views. The last time I said something about how I was angry and not willing to be particularly fair because I'm tired of the extremely litigious nature of society.

In my experience with jury duty in several locations, you should mostly expect waiting around in a big room, and possibly in a court room. There's some possibility you'll be asked to answer questions the lawyers and judge would use to decide if you're suitable for their jury, and your views of prisons may or may not come into play. But I've only gotten that far (voir dire) twice out of four times I've been called. Someone I know got released after honestly saying she couldn't send anyone to prison for a drug crime because she thought the laws were unjust.

Lucy was not a licker, but we had a cat for a long time who licked earlobes, and drooled while he did it.

Liese, I just got called for jury duty a couple of weeks ago. My experience: check in in the morning, then a couple of hours of waiting around (which was surrounded by people, but I didn't have to talk to them or anything (hooray for free wifi)), then judge assignment. We were a pool for a civil trial, so attitudes towards prison didn't come up, but about lawsuits in general and the specifics of the case did - filled out a survey before reporting to the courtroom. Maybe 2/3 of our pool got questioned over the course of the day, but I didn't, and it went on all day, which everyone said was unusual, but be prepared for that, I guess.

Oh, and they had estimated how long the trial was apt to take. People who had prepaid vacations scheduled during that time were excused from serving; people who would be missing work or had child care issues were not excused by the judge, but most of them were excused by the lawyers, I think.

My friend Curtis had a dog who was an ear licker and was, um, good at it.

It was frequent. Morgan would fly into a lap. The snuggling would start. In short order he'd go for the ears and the person would get this look...

It was fairly hysterical.

Yeah, Kat, I figure they`ll boot me if I voice my views about prisons (the entire system is deeply flawed (with apologies to our Buffista lawyers) and the punitive end of it particularly so, especially as regards minorities). But I don`t know how that would play out, empathy for the accused, empathy for the victim, in the actual courtroom.
 
I was joking today that the case I get will probably be that of our little local former fire chief who was accused of having stolen about a million dollars from our station, leaving firefighters unpaid and us without a fire station, during which time our neighborhood bar burned down. And then I`ll be all JAIL, SUCKA!

Walter's a toe licker. He does the occasional drive-by as well as occasionally settling in for some serious lickage. I don't mind, and he's pretty good about stopping if the lickee objects.