No Jury Duty.

Well, the short story is that I didn't get picked for Jury Duty. I'm certain it won't be my last chance, though. The lady who made all the announcements in the waiting hall for potential jurors launched a very long discourse detailing "what to do if you get called to duty again in the next 6 months", which made me suspect that that happens a lot. Guess I'll just look forward to my next big shot at fulfilling my duty as a citizen...

Anyways, enough about that.

Today I saw the movie Elizabethtown with Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst. Kind of a strange plot, but a really enjoyable movie about life and death in the South. In short, Orlando Bloom's dad dies and he returns to Kentucky to his dad's hometown to bury him. The film really had Southern country down to a tee. Honestly, I cracked up when I saw this guy's long lost family crowded into a kitchen talking loudly in a Kentucky drawl, drinking beer, frying pancakes in a rod iron skillet, and looking through old photo albums of the way things "used to be". The thickness of the drawl and the night sky full of stars made me miss Texas. Although my family doesn't cram into the kitchen, drink beer, and fry pancakes together, there is something about the Southern way of life that just can't be duplicated in California...no matter how much beer and pancakes you consume...

Jury Duty.

Well, I have only had my California driver's license for 9 months and I've already been called for Jury Duty!

For my fellow Texans and other Southerners reading this, I want to explain a very strange phenomenon I have discovered in California. EVERYONE gets called to Jury Duty. And, it's not, like, every 15 years (as in Texas). It is every year without fail. I'm totally serious! It is the strangest thing to me that here people actually get called for jury duty. I think I can only remember two or three people I know in Texas ever being called for duty. Maybe it's that we just don't have as many court cases in Texas? Is it just because our system is not as good at sending people 'official notices'? Maybe we would just simply rebel if we had to serve on jury duty every year? I mean, seriously! It seems like it would take a huge chunk out of the work force.

It kinda sounds like I'm complaining, but really I'm not. Secretly, I hope I get called to some wildy ridiculous jury trial with a California plot. For example, a jealous socialite steals a Prada bag from her Botox Beauty next door neighbor...a totally LA scenario. You'll have to stay tuned to see if I actually get called to serve. If so, it will go on my list of "California firsts". First Jury Trial involving a Prada bag....Check.