Jury Duty Resolved At Last!

Ok, so I reported for jury, as is my civic duty. I sat in the chairs with all the other people waiting for my name to be called. First we watched a really bad movie about what it means to be a juror. It was so dumbed down it was insulting even to the stupid people. After the movie ended we waited a while longer until names started to be called. It took a while for mine, but finally it was read and I followed the crowd into the elevator to the sixth floor to the jury room. Once in the jury room, they called roll and then explained what a hardship was. Hardship generally meant financial. One lady asked what if you had small children and the woman in charge said that that constituted a hardship. She would then hand out hardship excuse forms to those who raise their hands and mine shot up, along with most of the other people in the room. Only a small number of the people actually filled out the jury selection form. 

I forgot to mention that they also said that this case was going to run at least six weeks! I was panicked because I have my oldest boy's basketball State tournament in San Diego and a trip in a two weeks and all kinds of things not to mention I am the one who picks them up from school every day and I have no one to get them for me. All of these things are valid but I had to pick one, so I decided to go with sole provider of child care for my three kids.

As the forms were given to the second lady to read out whether each person was excused, excused from just this case and assigned to a shorter one and sent back downstairs or excused for completely I sat with my fingers crossed. She read out name after name and people continued to leave the room. I was nearly the last person left. I knew at least one other person said they took care of young children and was excused from service because I saw who asked about it and she was told she was excused for a year. I could not figure out what happened to my paper. Finally the lady called my name...the last paper...she walks over to me and tells me that I next time when I receive the summons I should turn the paper over and check the box indicating that I take care of dependents. She said had I done that I would not have had to come down there at all!

If only I had known. I thought you had to be breast feeding to make that one work! 

I thanked her and assured her I would be doing that next year as my kids are still young.

No jury duty for me for a while!!!!

Jury Duty Update

Well, I report for jury duty Tuesday morning at 8:45, downtown in civic center somewhere. I will park where I park to go to the ballet and opera, or so I have been directed on their recording, and walk over. I am hoping to be able to spend the one day there and that be it. I hope that they find me undesirable for their jury. 

If it is a DUI case, I plan on telling them that I have three children and do NOT drink because of that. I do not believe in drinking and driving AT ALL. I have no tolerance for alcohol nor people who get behind the wheel drunk. That is sure to get me disqualified. Luckily, no one from my youth will be there to testify against me. Nor will I be hooked up to any kind of machine that will give me away. Don't get me wrong, I don't really drink, unless it is an occasion or I am out to dinner with friends or family. I never drink at home, I just don't. I have migraines. I have no tolerance for alcohol anymore, that part is true. I don't agree with driving drunk, that is also true. 

I have thought I could say something extreme like "Fry everyone!!!" Of course I don't I don't feel that way. But who would want some lunatic on a jury saying that?! Or how about I judge people based on their looks...Eww, yeah, that's another beaut! Ok, I can't say that as a therapist. I would have to stick with hoping they don't want friends of cops on the jury. I think they care about that anymore. 

People have suggested making racial remarks. I can't do that. I would never make a statement like that ever. 

So short of that, I have to come up with something that will make neither side want me in their jury. 

That is what I will be thinking about until all weekend.

Happy Memorial Day weekend to you all!

L

Jury Duty!

I was so excited that I did not have to report to Jury Duty on Monday that it completely slipped my mind to call in on Monday afternoon. Ooops. I called in today and found out that I was indeed supposed to report for jury duty today at 1:45 p.m. There was no way that was going to happen as I had a sick child home from school. Wait, I also have an appointment tomorrow....but wait, worse than that, on Friday, my kindergartner has been preparing the Mother's Day presentation and brunch for at least a month. They sing us songs that make us cry happy tears, they present us with art they did...amazing art. Portraits of us and a still life of a vase full of flowers. They also give us framed photo that the teacher took of us several weeks ago with our child. They make the frame out of wood and decorate it simply but beautifully. I already have two of these and have been looking forward to collecting the full set of three. I have also been dreading it in a way as it will be my last ever in this amazing class. 

I have become friends with the teachers over the years and I love these ladies.

I cannot imagine NOT going to this event. It is HUGE to me and to all of us in the school.  I was thinking of  all the awful things I might have to say in order to get kicked off of the jury. I just couldn't bring myself to do it.

Luckily, I called in and spoke to a nice lady and explained that I have one sick child and I don't know how long this will last. I also expect it to go through the family. She allowed me 90 days to postpone. I took two weeks. I will report on the 27th. I think  will be fine to go then.

Hopefully, they will not need me for anything. Hopefully, the fact that a couple of my best friends are cops is enough to get me excused.

I can only hope.

Control Your Beast?

I get a call as I am pulling into the driveway last night at about 8:30 p.m.  We had just enjoyed a lovely afternoon celebrating my SIL's 50th bday (yes, she is a tad older than we are) around her pool in Novato with her friends and neighbors....it was really a lovely day.

Back to the call. It was my good friend and I think she is calling to just shoot the breeze. It take a couple minutes, she gets to the point of the call soon enough.

"Do you want to hear what YOUR BOYFRIEND did now?!"

My boyfriend being, this "friend" of ours who bullied my son into telling him when our school tryouts for our sports were so his kid could play on our team. No his son does not go to our school, but does do CCD there. 

Just a little background here. Our CYO sports are very competitive. Our schools are very tight knit. We have no problem welcoming people in, but you really need to behave yourself. It might help, also if your kid had something to offer if you are going to talk sh*t about other people's kids!

My friends kid got a great hit (baseball) and he walks by the group of parents and says.....

"Wow, first hit he got all season!"

She was unsure of what he said and asked the surrounding people if she had heard correctly. OH YES! He slammed her kid. But, he kid had gotten some very nice hits this season...this was by no means his first.

So this very conservative Lady, and I capitalize because she is  a lady and does not bad mouth people, proceeds to tell my friend what he said last week. 

She and her hubby have this darling puppy and they brought her to the game. He walks by the Husband (also a bit conservative) and says, "Control your beast.....I'm not talking about your dog, I'm talking about your wife!"

IS SHE EVER PISSED!

OK, I know him well and I know that he would be saddened if he thought he hurt anyone's feelings. He thinks he is being  clever. He is actually a very smart man...he will tell you this himself, honestly  he will. He can be so obnoxious!

Anyway, he does not belong to this community and really should just be polite and not try to be so familiar. 

After I told his wife I wouldn't stand for her abuse anymore we no longer socialize. I took it way too long. If she can't be anything other than jealous and mean...that is not friendship. I can't do the hostile emails where she gets to insult and I just take it. 

I wrote back setting boundaries and that was the end of that! Well, there is a whole story I will tell another time.

Wow, these people have problems. 

But now I am the one they are blaming for these people being in their faces. I said to my friend, 

"You didn't stick up for me?"

She said," NOPE!"

Gotta love my friends!

Saturday Morning Soccer Game

Today was the first Saturday since my youngest boy's Viking Microsoccer league began that I could actually attend a game. I have been taking my oldest son to his tournaments out of town every weekend so I have not seen any soccer OR my middle boy's baseball for that matter. But right now I am talking soccer (there was no baseball game today for some reason, I don't ask questions~that would be like looking a gift horse in the mouth at this rate!)

I digress.

My little guy is really quite an athlete. I am always amazed at these guys, really. Anyway, every Saturday evening, when we are all reunited, I ask how all the games went that day. Invariably, my youngest tell me:

"We won, Mom! The score was 12 to 0!"

It usually goes something like that.

I did not realize their team was playing up in the league so that one older kid (early birthday) could play. So our kindergartners are playing first graders.... at least.  That's fine.

OK, so today, when our team assembled at the beautiful Marina Greens, it was one of those rare sunny mornings in San Francisco. It was just lovely. The boats are sailing out, the GG Bridge is right there. It was breath taking. Makes you just feel so good. It was on of  those moments when I was  proud to be a native San Franciscan. Those are becoming rarer, trust me!

Again, I digress.

I am meeting up with other parents, who have attended these matches faithfully. Now, why this topic has not come up at practice, I don't know, because I am there every week. Maybe it's because they prefer discussing those wacky Real Manhattan Housewives (insert eyeroll).

One of the parents mentions to me how they have been getting CREAMED each week!!

WHAT?

NO!

I said, not according to my son. We are winning by a huge margin each week. Oh you should have heard the laughter.

A Mother from the other team comes to talk to our parents a bit later...an accent I do not recognize.

"How old are your children?" she asks.

"They are in kindergarten." replies on the Dads.

"OH. Zat iz why our kids look so HUGE!"

Thanks lady!

Well guess what...our little kids kicked their huge butts. Please know I would never say anything like that if not provoked by parents. Don't come over and tell us our kids are small. Don't  you think I know my youngest boy is kind of small!!!! Well, my small boy scored a minimun of 8 goals according to one of the Dads. He was sure he would score 10 today. My kid was ON FIRE!

Ok, I know these are just little kids and we shouldn't even be keeping score, but come on lady, you made me mad! 

I have to admit, I was very proud of our team! They have been playing older, much larger kids, from what I hear and they keep fighting. They are doing great and their game is much impoved. I don't care if they win, I care that they are having fun and playing as a team.

Good job, Cougars!

Sports Mom

My oldest son plays on an AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) Basketball Team. It is called Team Hoop/Mana. We travel almost every weekend for tournaments and have our league games on Friday nights. This will be one of the  very few weekends where we will be at home. We play Friday and Saturday, but at home. Usually we play Friday at home, and Sat/Sun in another city. I love it, although it is a lot of driving and a lot of work for all involved. I love the team, the players, the moms and dads, the coaches, and I love the director, the one who put the organization together. He also is a coach for several of our TH teams. We could not have found a more amazing team/organization. More on this at another time. I will say I am very proud of my boy as he plays on a 7th grade team and he is in the 6th grade. These teams are pretty tough. He is not just an athlete but a 4.0 student. He works hard at everything he does. Well, to be honest, most things comes easily to him, but when hard work is in order, he will put in the time.

The only downside for me has been that I have miss out on my other boys' games this spring. My middle boy is playing baseball and my youngest is playing Viking Soccer. I have heard they are doing amazingly well. I miss being out there cheering them on. I love watching my little guys go out there and play. They really are talented athletes all three of them.

OK, they drive me crazy half of the day when I have them all together, but in all seriousness, they are really amazing kids. They are known at school as some of the brightest, most athletic (means a lot in our school), but more than that, they are known to be kind and helpful. I have had people come up to me to tell me what nice kids I have. That this one was helpful in this way and that went out of his way to do that. I know this is going to sound harsh, but besides being proud, I would expect no less from my boys. I expect gentlemen. If someone needs help, you go do it. If someone is walking in a door, you go open it. If someone walks in, greet them. How is it that other people are not teaching these very same things. 

OK, I'm not thick, I get that some kids are shy and that some kids just don't do these things. But I expect my boys, at a certain age, to be gentlemen. Polite from the time they can speak, though. 

Don't get me wrong, they are maniacs and can swear like sailors at home (no I don't let them, they just find ways to slip it in and that is just the little fart, really) but NOT out in the world. 

If they need a safe place to act out or be naughty, home better be the place. I can handle that...to a point. Just be polite when it counts. They know this.

I am now down to using their sports as leverage. You will continue to behave or lose your sports for this weekend. 

Don't get the wrong idea, they are mostly good...really. But come on, three boys!

Off to kiss my babies' sweet sleeping faces before I go to sleep myself.

Good night!

L

Opposite Day...again?

I do so Y  my boys (like that? I told you I knew where the heart was...clever, huh?!) Anyway, This image reminds me of them...aside from the fact that it is a girl. They went through this whole period where everyday was Opposite Day. I think it gave them permission to say things they never would otherwise. I hate you, you're ugly...you get the picture. Then later if they they got in trouble for saying something they would say, "But Mom, I didn't mean it...it's Opposite Day!" 

It drove me up a wall. I finally had to abolish this holiday they kept proclaiming.

I am so glad I have not heard this in a while. It was a clever defense, though. I will give them that!