...and how was your day, Madam Foreperson?

For those of you who don't know, I was selected to be on a Federal Grand Jury for the District of Maryland . This means that potentially every Tuesday from this past January through the following 18 months, I am called to sit on a grand jury. A grand jury decides whether a case has sufficient evidence to go to trial, as opposed to the more familiar trial jury where the jury decides on the actual verdict. Less pressure for us, but we usually end up spending more time, and on a large number of cases instead of just one. Since ours is federal we get tax fraud, interstate gun crimes, stuff like that. The first day, the judge called five of us up, told us about the foreperson and deputy foreperson jobs, and asked if anyone wanted to be eliminated from consideration. I was the only one who didn't back away in horror at the thought of being foreperson, so I got the job. It's mostly organizational--pick up the paperwork, check on who's there and who was excused for the day, and other fun stuff. It's a lot like being Sunday Supervisor at the library except I don't have to calm down angry patrons or deal with overflowing toilets.

I can't say what happens because of confidentiality but, well, for instance, today...

I took the light rail in (why does anyone drive into a big city? Let someone else drive, pay less for light rail than for parking, and get in a little reading along the way?). Since we've had some sunny warm weather, the daffodils were blooming, and I even walked under a pear tree in bloom! Lovely! Bawlm'r* can be pretty on a sunny early spring day, and I even get to see the Bromo-Seltzer tower on my way to the courthouse! I developed a fondness for the tower when I first visited Charm City for the World Science Fiction Convention in 1998. The tower has a cobalt-blue light, and I have a thing about both cool historic architecture and the color cobalt blue...

As usual, I forgot to leave my little Leatherman swiss-army-type knife at home, so I had to turn it in at the front desk of the Federal court house to be called for when I left for the day. The security guards have fun teasing me about this huge (2 1/2 in.) dangerous (cobalt blue, a knife with all the power of a bargain-bin butterknife) weapon.

We had two cases, which of course I can't tell you about, but the second attorney's shirt did not go with his suit. Very nice man, though. We got to go to court to hand in a decision to the judge today (I decided against letting him know about the shirt/suit thing while we waited) so I could hand in a decision we'd made. The judge called me "Madam Foreperson!" Cool!

At lunchtime a fellow juror noticed there were elephants across the way! (The circus is in town and we're cati-corner from the arena.) So we went out to see the elephants-- four big floppy-eared well-behaved creatures, behind fences with attendants nearby. We enjoyed the sun and the view and so did they.

We finished around 3pm so I headed back and stopped by Twilite Zone Comics for work-related business. Really. I was not using this as an excuse (well, not much). I picked up gift certificates for the winners of our "name the mini-con contest" at the library as well as two huge boxes of manga magazines and other goodies for our anime/manga club and the next mini-con. When I mentioned to Sarah (our wonderful acquirer of goodies/drawing-workshop assistant for the mini-cons as well as a fine comic book store staffer) that I was going to a workshop where we would talk about manga for younger kids, she had tons of suggestions. Very helpful for the workshop and another one I'm doing as well (I'm the semi-official manga/anime expert in the county library system, though my co-mini-con chair Don is rapidly getting up to speed). Then of course I had to check out a few things for myself... I bought only one manga,
Yotsuba&!--a really cute one about a charming and odd little girl.

Since it was too late to head back to work, I also stopped by a rarely-open herb store and picked up some raspberry leaves for tea (good for just about any "woman problems" except maybe for menopause) and fennel seeds. (Wait till Ken finds out I want him to try them!)

Then, on to my former library branch to pick up a container with half a slice of fake-cheese pizza I'd forgotten after working there Sunday before last. It was great seeing my former coworkers and collecting hugs, and chatting about fun work-related stuff (storytimes, my manga/anime stuff) with my friend Suzanne.

Finally, home to make some cards (Ken and David have birthdays in the next month, and Tom needs a card too!). And to blog, of course!

I think it's dinner time now...

*a common local pronunciation of "Baltimore" (an alternative is "Bawl-tee-more"--depends on where you grew up and possibly your age. Stasa would know more than I do, wouldn't you, hon?)