Santa Cruz, You're Not That Far

Darn you, carsickness, for making me to nauseous to ride the rollercoasters

I've been on a little bit of an artichoke kick lately.  Yesterday I tried to describe the taste of an artichoke heart to Erin, and I couldn't think of many good descriptors.  Ideas?

I went to Santa Cruz with Ben's family for Memorial Day weekend.  It was lovely.  I spent the entire drive from Davis to Santa Cruz complaining about my lack of frozen yogurt and napping and then getting frozen yogurt.  Sunday we had breakfast/brunch at Zachary's in Santa Cruz, on that street where there's shopping and a lot of people trying to get you to sign their petitions....  It was good.  They had free coffee while we waited for a table.  Our waitress clearly took advantage of the availability of coffee.  She needed to relax.  Most of us (not me) had something called Mike's Mess, which was a scramble of some kind.  I had an artichoke heart omelet.  Everyone had oatmeal molasses bread that was delicious.  Zachary's had really good people watching.  I think it's either really funny or really awful (okay, mostly funny) to observe parents not pay attention to their kids when eating in public.

Next we went shopping at the shops and denied signing a few petitions.  Then Ben's family dropped me off to dodge a bullet of boredom write a plant breeding paper while they went to a local flea market.  We all went to the boardwalk to look at the seals, and I looked at them with envy, as they were in the middle of an all day nap.  Sunday evening we had dinner (including artichokes!) and then I went for a really fun run near the beach.  Before bed on Sunday night I finished a Nancy Drew book to reward myself for almost finishing my plant breeding paper.

Monday we had a really good breakfast at a place somewhere (I can't remember the name).  I had toast and bacon.

I picked up a few ginger ales for the road and then Ben drove this satisfactorily brunched individual back to Sacramento.

Jobs I'd Be Really Good At, Part 2.

I've been putting off this post for a little while, but I think I'm ready to spill the beans on my temporary occupation for three whole weeks:

JUROR for Sacramento County.

I don't know how to flip this picture.

It may come as no surprise that my Law-and-Order-filled upbringing has glorified the concept of the judicial system in my imagination over the years.

(Side note: Posts on this blog and a certain other blog may lead some of my readers to think that I was raised to sit around and watch Law and Order all day long for all of my formative years.  However, this is not true.  First of all, I may write about Law and Order so frequently because it is much more interesting than most of the other things included in my day-to-day.  Secondly, I was raised to pair productive activities with television.  Example include: quality family time, washing the dishes, painting my nails, math homework, writing lab reports on wine microbiology, napping, folding laundry, wrapping presents.)

Back to the point.  I received my first Sacramento Country jury summons for April 24, 2012.  I nervously informed my boss of this summons, simultaneously worried that I would be ruining everything at the lab and so excited about finally serving as a juror (potentially).  Lucky for me, my boss shares my curiousity and interest in serving on a jury, so he was happy for me, leaving me free to throw myself a party for being the most blessed person on the face of the earth (complete with L&O and some dried mango).

I woke up bright and early for jury duty on April 24.  I was ready.  I'm not silly enough to pinpoint my address on the internet, but let's just say I live substantially closer to the courthouse compared to my workplace.  I got myself a coffee from my favorite coffee place (Temple Coffee), and made my grand entrance into the courthouse.  I checked in, filled out my Voir Dire, and waited for my name to be called to report to Department 35.  The potential jurors filed into the courtroom.

After 1.5 days of jury selection, I was sworn in as Juror #9 in the civil case of Jain V. Jain.  My theory as to why I was chosen to be a juror is because I have absolutely no life experience (Reason 1 I was born to be a juror).  The trial was a civil case where one brother was suing the estate of his other brother due to failure to uphold contracts and feduciary duties relating to their business partnership, a check cashing store.  No, I did not know what "feduciary" meant when I began my jury service.  I spent the next three weeks listening to testimony (which sometimes resembles teeth being pulled), looking at documents, watching my fellow jurors fall asleep and occasionally begin to snore, drinking coffee, and taking my lunch breaks at home with mango, sandwiches, popsicles, and Law and Order.  Jury duty was everything I imagined, and more.  Except for the part where time failed to completely stop at work while I was serving my civic duties.

I think if I didn't have a pile of work forming back in Davis, I would have been content to serve on a jury forever.