Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

Ok, I suppose it COULD be some mysterious government conspiracy, but that seems even less likely.  Here’s what happened…

A month or so ago, my husband got summoned for jury duty (a first for him).  He’s always been sort of interested in the possibility, but it’s hard to get unexpected time off work when you work for a small company, and he wasn’t super excited about the timing.  And THEN he found out that it was expected to take three weeks–because it was a murder trial.  Of a 7-year-old.

Did I mention that we HAVE a 7-year-old?

At this point, as you might expect, he decided that he really, really hoped he wouldn’t get picked.  He doesn’t get any paid time for jury duty, so he was worried about the financial aspect as WELL as the obvious emotional one.  We prayed, quite literally, that he wouldn’t get picked.  And he didn’t.  Hallelujah!  It took at least two days of waiting around the courthouse to NOT get picked, but he didn’t.  (We both believe in civic duty, by the way, and under different circumstances he would have served willingly.  That particular trial was just a really, REALLY bad fit.)  We actually had to wait to schedule our anniversary celebration until we knew for sure he wouldn’t be on a jury somewhere, which is why I found it so ironic when, the day after we got home, guess what came in the mail for ME?

Uh, huh.  You guessed it.  What are the chances?  It’s not even as if I’ve never been summoned before; this is my THIRD letter, as a matter of fact.  The first time it settled out of court and I didn’t have to go in.  The second time my mother-in-law got my kids for two days at the very last minute, because I got picked to serve on the jury of a child pornography case.  (For the record, even though my kids slept at my mother-in–law’s and I had almost no responsibilities when I got home at the end of the day, those were two of the most exhausting days of my life.)  I’d like to think the odds are against having to do something like THAT again, but then again, if you’d asked me yesterday what the odds were that I’d get a summons today…

Blech.  I’m going to go read and NOT think about it.

And by the way, for those who can’t sleep at night for the suspense, the Tooth Fairy wrote in her letter to my 7-year-old that while different families like to call her different names, my daughter could call her Tansy Faith.  (She likes having the same initials either way.)