Reporting in from R&R. Been busy, but not with jury
duty. I didn’t get selected and, oddly, was a little upset. The defendant, who
was charged with robbing someone of a carton of cigarettes and somehow also
battery got worked in there, was going to represent himself. I think that would
have been fascinating, and, since they said it would only have taken a day,
would have been really convenient. But alas, I didn’t make the cut. I’ll never
know why, but I wonder if it had to do with me hacking up a lung as we were
questioned.
They only needed a jury of six and an alternate, but they
must have called 60-80 people. We filled out little forms that included our
employer, and then, after a lunch break, they took 30 of us upstairs for
questioning. I was No. 5 or so called. Twenty-one of us sat in the little jury
box, and on each of our chairs was a laminated thing with questions we had to
ask. Just the general: name, where you work, spouse/kids’ names, where they
work, if you’ve ever been arrested or know anyone who has, if you think they’ve
were treated fairly, etc.
Initially, they asked people if anyone being there would create
an undue hardship. One lady said she was the primary caregiver for her husband,
which led to a “who’s with him now?” question, to which she said no one. She
eventually got dismissed, but I found that interesting. No one “got off”
immediately. Another guy claimed it he was observing Ramadan and therefore
could not judge anyone, which was a new Ramadan theory for me, but what do I
know? I’ve only lived in four Muslim countries. He was eventually dismissed,
too, along with the person sitting next to me, who said she had PTSD from
witnessing a shooting and it might be triggered by listening to testimony of a
violent incident.
Tallahassee’s a small town. There were three connections between
the 21 people seated. Two women's husbands worked at DHMSV, and one realized the other’s
husband was her husband’s boss. Another was a therapy dog trainer at TMH and a
man’s wife volunteered with that program. That same man had been a
middle-school substitute teacher for the 26-year-old who was called. And the
next day, I discovered that one of the women I’d talked to at lunch knew Zippy.
And Leanne knew both the DHMSV people.
After we did our little introductions, the prosecutor came
up and voir dire-d us. He came off as really arrogant, but he was very
fair. Since the defendant was incarcerated, he was wearing his little jumpsuit
and the prosecutor made a point to ask if anyone would be pre-dispositioned by
that. No one said they would. More people than I thought, though, had been
arrested. One guy in the back said he’d been arrested three times. Another
woman’s son had some kind of drug charge, but he had died awhile back. People
know a lot of law enforcement, too. The woman on the other side of me, who was
eventually selected, was dating a Gadsden County officer. Someone’s child went
to school with Someone Else’s child, where Someone Else must have been some
high-up law enforcement person, but I don’t remember the name.
I got asked one question right off, but I forget what it
was. He added an “—er” to me name, which made my teeth stand on edge since I
found him arrogant. Later, he asked if I knew any military-type people and if
that would affect my judgment. I know a lot of military-type people, but I don’t
think of them as military-type. I think of them as Mike, Eugene, Reuben, Jed,
etc. He also asked someone what kinds of evidence there were and whatever they
said, he asked me after that what I would expect to be presented. I said I’d
rather not expect anything and look at it as it was presented.
That took forever, and we took a break before the defendant had
his turn, but once we came back from the 15-minute break, all he did was say
that the prosecutor has said it all (which was true) and all he asked was
whether anyone wouldn’t treat him fairly and that all he wanted was a fair
trial. After that, we got another break while the judge and the two
representatives selected the jury. Not me. I had no idea that was the process. Clearly,
I don’t watch enough television. The whole “afternoon jury selection” was weird
enough. They do this twice a day, I guess. It sure was a lot for one six-person-plus-an-alternate
jury. I was probably out of there around 4 p.m. or so.
After that, my R&R got started, which meant a lot of
yard work. I’m leaving tomorrow, and I basically finished the yard work today.
Probably 20 bags of leaves, since nothing’s been raked since I left in August
or whenever it was. Today was mowing the lawn, raking the side yard and bagging
those leaves. It’s a small side yard, and that was seven bags just there. The
lot is about .25 acres, I guess and I’m amazed at how much it can gather.
The departure plans changed, thus demonstrating that I
really don’t understand my employer whatsoever. I am not, as DC told me,
reporting to DC. I got a note from my boss – first communication in a couple of
months – asking that I return to Baghdad. Although welcome news, this meant I
had to re-jigger all my flights, leading to another $580 in charges for me. Because
my R&R wasn’t from Point A to only Point B, I did what we call a “cost-construct,”
meaning I remained on the hook for any changes. And swapping the return from
Baghdad to DC back to Baghdad (via Amman this time, since Baghdad was too
expensive). Joy. That, combined with the $400 charge on the way in made this
visit home way more expensive than I thought it would be. Oh well.
Just no idea this would have happened. Normally, we opt for “position”
over “person,” meaning however good or bad a particular employee happens to be,
it’s the position that the person is in that everything depends on. But this
time around, it appears that the factors are different. Since my position is
being eliminated, there’s just no way I’d be able to argue it’s “essential,”
but someone much higher on the food chain determined that I am clear to return.
At the same time, a person with the same job title and whose position would normally
be considered essential was evacuated and does not yet have clearance to
return. I’m not going to pretend to understand it. I am just glad I will be
returning. Now I can drink all that root beer, which I assume is still in my fridge.
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