jury duty, the philosopher and..28 DAYS!!!!

the first four paragraphs come straight from a letter that i wrote today while in the courthouse.

as i got off of the DART train (our rapid transit in dallas), i pulled out my jury invitation summons (forced invitation) for directions. a lady saw mine and wanted to tag along with me, so i asked her what courthouse she was supposed to be at, and i tried to keep the look of relief off my face when she said the other one "phew!" she was a chatty, and the worst kind of tag-along you can have is a chatty one, especially if you don't know them because first they try to make it look as if you are bff's, and then crazy things start spewing from their mouth and everyone assumes that you agree with them because you are bff's- guilty by association! you DEFinitely don't get dates that way! (not that jury duty is probably the best place to find a date..12 amgry men)...

when i got there, i checked in, and went to sit down. and after a bit they went ahead and started with the movie orientation a super-imposed clarice tinsley as the hostess talking about the AWESOME experience that being a juror is. and then of course, there were several people who gave their testaments about how amazing it was. the whole time i was thinking, "what? no popcorn???" and uncortunately, i did have to stick around because i met all of the qualifications.

they drew the random lottery and people were herded out of the room. those of us who were left (the 'just-in-casers')were given a little break. "take a break until 10:30," she said. hmm..so, take a break from reading, writing, texting, listening to music, waiting...take a break from serious waiting, to go do some casual waiting so that you can come back and wait seriously again...yep. sounds about right. HAPPY came on, and i wanted to blast it and see if anyone would flash mob...but i thought that might ruin my chances of getting home without a misdemeanor. thank you BRANDY for introducing me to eddy kenzo-loving the album; thanks for posting it on your fb page! (insert smiley emoticon).

and i drank my 2 1/2 bottles of water (i didn't want to break my back carrying more today), so that was rough, as i had no idea how much longer was left. finally around noon, we were given the happy news! and as the lady read down the list, people called out, "HERE!" and exited stage right. one of the people that was called was wang tung perhaps you can understand why for the remainder of the wait, i was singing to myself, "everybody have fun tonight...everybody wang chung tonight!" so as people were saying "here", i was worrying about how i was going to say it when it was my turn....will it be loud? soft? high pitch? should i sing it? indifferent? how can you mess up "here!" i'm sure my "here" was truly remarkable, and if there had been an agent in the crowd screening for an actor to say the word "here," i would have been the chosen one.

then i went to stand in a line to get a work confirmation slip, and a lady coming out recognized me from the elevator and asked if i could say "HERE" one more time...NO SHE DIDN'T! JK! but she did ask if this was the line to get her check. (all of $6), so i told her they would mail it. and then it was back to the DART rail. when i got to west end, i saw the guy i saw back when i went to the avid conference a few summers ago. tyrun.

tyrun is homeless. he buys newspapers every morning (the homeless newsletter of sorts) and then he sells them on the corner-give them away and people make donations; they feel guilted into it after they see the print on the top of the page that says the vendor bought these copies. anyhoo-he stopped me and struck up a conversation. and so...i stood and listened and pretty much didn't get a word in  edgewise. but that's ok, because i'm sure he just likes to have conversation...but here are some of the excerpts:

T: you know, i only talk to pretty people. i don't like talking to ugly people, because phew! they creepy. 
you know, i'm a philosopher. i used to be a drug dealer, and i went to jail and now i'm kind of a pimp. i pimp my newspapers...
let me see your eyes. i can tell if a person is good or not if i can see my reflection in their eyes. you're good.
you know what they say man's best friend is? (me: dog?) ok, ok...flip that around and what d'ya get?  (God) right...see, i'm a philospoher, and things like that just come to me.
people don't like me talkin' to you. they're watchin right now and they don't like it. the police is going to come by after and tell me to stop getting in peoples' face. they don't like it because i'm black and you're white. 
there was more, and fact i kept trying to inch closer to the crosswalk, and he kept getting in my way. i sadly watched the green line to carrollton close its doors and slip away...sigh.

i went home, changed, ate, and then went up to school to grab the potatoes to try to get them down to the pantry. the lady never called me back, so i called again and left message #2. then the fire alarm went off, so i grabbed all of my stuff, including the 38 lbs of potatoes and went on out the door. i took off to find this food pantry, and when i got there, i knocked on the metal door, no answer, so i went to the front, and knocked on the glass door. no answer. i cupped my hands over my eyes at the front door and looked in and saw a man, so i knocked again...no answer...i muttered a few not-so-nice things and decided that if she did not call me back, i was going to find another place to take them...

on the way home, i decided to stop at lowes for some of the hardware that i need for a small project in 109, and as i was leaving, i got a call from the pantry, so i zipped on over there because the last thing i need is for potatoes to start sprouting in my car! she was very grateful, and i was a little ashamed of my frustrated thoughts...i'm sure they are short-staffed and very busy. i know they work very hard to do the very best they can.

now i'm home, and as i look at my calendar, i cannot believe that i have not flipped it from may to june!! what in the world?! as soon as i do, you know what happens-the countdown begins!!!! i think every morning i am going to wake up and do a count dracula countdown like on sesame street-tventy eight! tventy eight days! vahahaha!!! (cue noise machine thunderstorm and lightning)!! yes, that's right! 28 days until i see the mountains and the city i call home! my stomach just did that thing. you know, the ache where you know something is missing and you just want to fill it..that one.

sorry no pics...but while a picture is worth a thousand words, i'm pretty sure my thousand words will paint a picture!
jules