Jury Duty

So I had jury duty Wednesday and today. When I got to the courthouse, the judge told us that we had a great chance of NOT getting jury duty because they only needed 100 people and there were about 250 in the room. Whew, I thought to myself, slim chance of getting called. The first case came up and needed 24 jurors to select from...of course my name was immediately called and I had to return to the courthouse at 1:30 pm. When we all meet back at 1:30, once again, this judge claims that our chances are pretty good for not getting to be a juror since there were 24 of us, and they only needed six jurors. Whew, I thought again, what are the chances! I should have known that when the song "You've had a bad day" is playing on the radio as you get ready to go into the courthouse, that things are not.looking.good. During the who voir dire process, I decided to keep my mouth shut. Most of the people talking really sounded stupid and so I just thought it would be better to keep quiet. This is probably the ONLY time I have stayed quiet and it came back to bite me! So, I was one of the six to be on the jury. That should be enough bad luck for the day right?
I go home with a knot in my stomach knowing now that I have to be a juror. Oh well, at least I don't know anyone involved with the trail and I will just do my civic duty and be done with it. Ya'll things went from bad to worse on Thursday. I am sitting in my little, uncomfortable juror chair when the prosecution witnesses march in to the courtroom to be sworn in. Oh.my.gosh. I knew one of the witnesses! In my head I am thinking that I am about to cause a mistrail. The whole time that this person is on the stand, I can hardly hear her talk because I am freaking out. My stomach is knotting up, my mind is racing, and I am thinking...should I be honest and tell the judge or just pretend that I don't know her? After about 3 witnesses we finally took a break and I wrote a note to the judge to tell him that I knew one of the witnesses. How crazy is that! Really! What are the odds that I would get picked to be a juror and know one of the witnesses? All I can say is that I am my father's daughter and that it seems that no matter where I go, I seem to know someone. So, after what seemed to be a very long break, the judge made me come back into the courtroom by myself so that they could ask me some questions regarding the relationship between the witness and myself. Yep, there I was...in a courtroom alone with the defense, prosecutor, judge, baliff, court reporter, witnesses and audience. The judge asked me how I knew the witness. I explained that we had graduate class together about 3 years ago and that we had exchanged email during the semester, but that we had not seen or talked to each other since that one class. He asked me if I could still be fair and I replied, "yes". He let me go back to the jury room and then we went on with the trial. I must admit that I had visions of being led to jail and a big ole "mistrial" label stamped across my forehead, but luckily we went on with the trial. Luckily, we were finished with the trail by 5:00 Thursday afternoon. I hope that it is a L-O-N-G time before I have to do that again!