Maybe is time I get some new duties...

See that pile of leaves the boys are in? That's just from the front of a small strip of lawn on the side of our driveway. We spent most of Saturday raking and bagging (our city requires us to buy their overpriced bags, which I suppose pays for their removal) roughly 20 huge bags worth of leaves. It was satisfying at the end of the day to see our yard so clean again...but only for a few minutes, since the neighbors' leaves blew right back in. Oh well. Those are the prices you pay for living in such a green area.
It's been a really warm November so far. Yesterday, it got up to about 80 degrees! I could live with Winter if it stayed like this. But for the past two days, I didn't get to enjoy the weather. Instead I was downtown, fulfilling my civic responsibilities as a juror. It was a really interesting, frustrating, tiring, and rewarding experience. I originally was scheduled for jury duty last month while Paul was out of the country, but I got it moved so he could stay home. Paul played the part of Mr. Mom perfectly. Seriously, kids were fed, bathed, taken to and from school, dishes were washed, laundry was done, groceries were bought, dinner was ready at the end of the day, and the house was even in decent order when I got home. He's a star.
I went in yesterday morning, armed with a few books. I was sure I'd be sitting in that giant room with 500+ other people for two days. After a few hours, things finally got moving, and they called the first round of jurors- 36 people, and I very relieved to be among that group.  We moved slowly up to our room, where we found out that we were on a civil case and the attorneys asked us different questions. Being the boring stay-at-home-mom that I am, I was pretty quiet through all of this. No, I did not have any experience driving a truck, no I did not have any real legal knowledge, no I never had business dealings with these particular companies...and so forth. And so I was picked to be on that particular jury. Also a relief, since those who were not picked had to go back to that giant room and go through the long process all over again.
Our case was pretty boring, although I feel some surge of excitement that I now have permission to talk (and even blog!) about it. :) We watched the same clip of surveillance footage and google map images and heard the same story over and over for two days. Basically, a company was trying to get actual and punitive damages from some FedEx driver for "knowingly" damaging a communication line that ran over a parking lot. Besides the footage, there wasn't much to go on to determine motive other than the guy's testimony that it was an honest mistake- that he wasn't even aware of causing any damage until he was later shown the tape.
Being in the same room with a bunch of strangers for a few days was the most interesting part though. Since we couldn't discuss the case, we talked about all sorts of other things. I had lunch with another young mom, who I never would have otherwise met. I got to hear all sorts of fascinating stories and open up a little about some of my beliefs. When we finally got to deliberate, it was as if the floodgates opened, and what was really on our minds all spilled out. It was a pretty clear consensus among us, which I thought was interesting. I wondered if it would be when during the closing statements I found myself waffling. Anyways, it's over. I'm glad it's over, but I'm also glad I got to have the experience. Maybe I'll even look forward to it the next time I'm called in for jury duty.