I'm reporting for duty! (with John Kerry's tone)

With all the hoopla surrounding Oprah serving on a jury recently, I remembered my own experience in March. It wasn't very glamorous, and I was praying to God I wouldn't be selected. In March, I was doing my month of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM). It was an enlightening experience and I dreaded missing days to serve as a juror. What if I was selected for a case that would drag on for weeks? Or worse, that I would have to be sequestered like in the OJ trial? Yikes!

Everyone is thrown in one huge room to wait until your number is called. It's up to you to determine how you will use that time. Watch TV? There are a few TV sets hoisted on some of the pillars. Read a book or the newspaper or magazines? Catch up on sleep? There are no comfortable chairs or sofas so be prepared for a neck cramp or back cramp. Converse with some of the strangers near you? I wonder how many people actually run into a friend or family member when called for jury duty.

Well, I wanted to be productive with my time so I took some reading material. I switched seats several times during the day as more time passed, and I still wasn't summoned. My choice of reading material was my manual on nutrition. You would think doctors would get courses on nutrition while in medical school, but it's not the case. I received ZERO and so did the rest of my medical school. Once one starts to interact with patients in the hospital and the clinic, one realizes how important nutrition is. Over and over you see or read things in the media about how Americans' poor diets are leading to high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, and so on. I did manage to read quite a bit of my nutrition manual from my CAM rotation. Though by noon, I was feeling tired and bored. At times, I caught myself dozing off.

Then, we were finally released for lunch. It was either the scary cafeteria or venturing outside for food. I wanted to avoid the hassle of driving and then finding parking when I returned so I opted for the cafeteria. Anyway the jail backdrop of the 26th Street courthouse doesn't immediately make one think "cuisine paradise". However, Little Village is near which holds promise of great Mexican food. I would have been better off if I brought my own lunch but being new at this, I didn't think of. I think I had something greasy which I felt guilty buying after reading about nutrition. However, it was one of the cheaper options. Some of the other selections didn't look too enticing.

After lunch, we headed back to the huge holding room. Because of my post prandial sleepiness, I was less efficient in my reading. In between my dozing off periods, someone announced we were free to go! I waited to be called for my check - a whooping sum of $17.

I did think the jury duty setting could make an interesting play or movie. I imagined a Ken Smith type of film maybe with actor Jason Lee (he's sexy). You could have Silent Bob and the other guy (I forget his name) mingling with the other jurors in the huge holding room and causing mischief.
Well, I'm glad it was quick and sort of painless. Hope I am not called so soon, but right now I could use that $17.