My new profession: The lucky one

Well, it's official. Much to my surprise, I was picked to serve on a jury. Not just any jury; a long-ass trial that is high profile and expected to last at least a month, maybe longer.

The thing is, I can't talk about it, read about it, or hear about it. With anyone. No one. All I can do is 'think to myself' about it. I picked up the local paper this morning, the Mercury News, as I always do with my early morning cuppa, and bam! There it was. The article that I could NOT read. I did NOT read it, even though it was on the front page of the Local News section! Although I have been known to break some rules, I can't break these particular rules. I calmly flipped through the pages, saw that the article about the trial was continued on another page, put the entire section down, and read the rest of the paper. Honest. I will now be devouring Dear Abby and Miss Manners, and of course, the comics, and the obits (I always check those just to make sure my name isn't in there...so far, so good).

So, y'all don't get all sly on me and think you can slip something into the conversation that I won't realize is your way of discussing the trial without really discussing it. Not an option. The only discussion I can have is what is offered in the vending area of the jury waiting room.

So far, I have only ventured into the vending room once, to purchase a diet soda (mostly wanted it for the caffeine). The only reason I bought a diet soda was because I misplaced my parking stub and spent my entire lunch break looking for the validated parking stub, so I could leave and go get a decent cup of coffee for the afternoon session. Nope. Never did find it. Finally got a replacement parking stub (which involved going down three flights of stairs, only to find out there was no attendant there at that time, so I climbed up three flights of stairs again). At the end of the exhausting day, the darn ticket stub would not work in the machine at the exit, so I ended up holding up the entire parking structure, filled with happy jurors trying to exit, not at all in a hurry to get the hell out of there. Oh, no. They were all very pleased with me, I'm sure. I'll be the juror wearing a bag over her head, so as to enter and exit incognito in the future.

In my search for a caffeinated beverage, I did take a peek at the vending machine that dispenses candy and such. I took a quick glance, looking for M&M's, but, alas, not to be found. Thank goodness. That could get really addictive. I love M& M's. Plain, peanut, I'm not fussy. Any M&M is a good M&M to me. I did spy, out of the corner of my eye, Pay Day candy bars, but I thought about all the chewy stuff in the middle, and decided that would just give me too much fun, picking out all the chewy stuff out of my teeth all afternoon with my tongue, trying not to look obvious about it. So, my goal is to continue climbing all the stairs each day, and not buying anything from the vending machine, except the occasional diet soda, if I really need it.

For all my opinions about just about everything under the sun, I could go my entire life and not weigh in on this one. Really. Because I believe everything happens for a reason, I guess I'll go with the idea that I have a lot to learn about myself and maybe some other people, too. Here's hoping this learning experience will be a valuable one, and allow me to dabble in the black and white of the world, since mine is usually filled with only the gray.