Finding Blessings in the Mundane

Jury duty. Need I say more? I was summoned last summer, and deferred. Once deferred, you must somehow serve in the next year. My time came up this last Wednesday. I got my child care lined up, got ahead in schoolwork. I brought a magazine, light paperwork, and my Blackberry with me.

I arrived downtown to one of the most overworked courts in our state. When serving jury duty, you should expect to be herded around, questioned, and kept busy. Court cases are always needing to be heard. Juries are always needed. Right?

As I am herded into the jury room, I am not joking. I am pleasantly surprised. The last time I served, probably about 8 year ago, it looked so different. Cushy office chairs have replaced hard plastic chairs. Two big screen TV's are mounted on the walls. There is a nice sound system. Who paid for this? Did our tax dollars get here? No such luck. These cushy improvements were possible because jurors signed off receiving their pay to fund all of this. Sigh......don't get me started on my feeling of that. Those of us living in Oregon right now are feeling the keen sense the state is continuing to take and take, with little in return. This just fed that feeling. Considering I am paying my childcare provider four times what I will be paid, it makes me irritated.

Anyway, we sit down. We watch fancy a Power Point presentation on how great our American jury system is, and what to expect today. I do appreciate that, because I do believe in the jury system. I also fall asleep for several moments during this presentation. Did I mention how cushy the seats are?

And we wait to be called. I watch the remainder of the "Today Show", which I haven't done since before I was married. I also watched "Days of Our Lives" and several infomercials. I played every game application on my Blackberry, made business phone calls, and did my writing I needed to get done.

What do you notice? No one is being called.....at all. I am hitting boredom levels. It's that boredom that is most irritating. You can't just relax. You know you have ten thousand things you could be doing at home, but because you have to sit in this room, you can't do them. Yet, you're doing nothing in this room and could be so productive if you could just be freed! I am leaving irritating messages on my facebook page on my boredom. It's hitting a level I don't like.

11:30 am. Lunch is normally at noon, but our room monitor gal let's us know that the trials for that day have been bumped to the afternoon, so we can leave early for lunch and be back by 1:30 pm. We are allowed to leave the building. Freedom!

I am in downtown. I love Portland's downtown. I have been in a lot of downtowns. I like ours because it is a nice mix of everything. Shopping, food, office spaces, coffee shops, open spaces, green spaces, etc. I like Atlanta, but their downtown is almost all hotels and office space. Very little shopping or touristy things to do. St. Louis is very trashed. Lots of homeless people, good shopping and good food, and very run down. Portland has it all and it is appealing.

I find a Borders bookstore and I am determined to find a book that will capture my attention. Okay, I had to think. What was the last kind of book that I read that made time go by fast. True crime. Ann Rule. Bingo.

I am about to find some lunch, but I am standing outside of Borders looking at their bargain racks. I turn and a woman who had just passed me whizzed around and pointed her finger at me and said, "Hey!" She completely startled me and I didn't recognize her.

One aside here......that skill of recognizing people no longer exists for me. I mean it. With my job, I meet up to 50 new people a week, no joke. After almost ten years of this, I honestly don't remember where I may have met you once before, and pretty soon people start to look familiar who aren't and people really do resemble each other. So when she did this, I get a feeling of "oh no.....now I have to figure out which candle party in the last 10 years I met her at!" I did over 200 candle parties just last year alone. See the problem?

I say, as I always say, "I am sorry, you'll have to help me. I don't remember you." She is about to jump out of her skin, she is so excited. She is Julie. And as soon as she said that, I remembered. She is Julie and her daughter is Sierra, and my family delivered her entire Christmas to her just about three weeks ago. Click here to remember that story.

She hugged me fiercely. I asked how she was and where she was living. I also told her she looked great! I am not kidding. She looked great. You could tell in three weeks, things were looking good for her. She has her housing now, and she really wants to start coming to our church. I reminded her where we were and to please come. Many of us would love to see her. Another fiercely strong hug and a genuine goodbye with a "see you soon!"

Jury duty just became really meaningful. I was on the light rail a few hours later.....not called to a jury in the busiest court in the state. However, I knew I was supposed to be in downtown Portland on Wednesday even if only to reconnect with a special woman.