Broadsheet: May it please the court....

Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self. - Cyril Connolly

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Greetings from juror #653. I got set up on a wi-fi connection, have my iPod going, and am just waiting to be called to a courtroom. It takes most of the morning for them just to process and pay ($15) everyone. I can't imagine a worse job than being clerk of courts. How utterly boring to check names off a roster and dole out bills all day long.

$15 doesn't go very far. $12 for parking and $6.95 for the day pass on the courthouse wi-fi network, and I'm allready in the hole, and we haven't even gone to lunch yet.

The variety of people in the pool is stunning. Black (predominantly), white, young, old, gay, straight, even an ugly trannie or two. Kind of scary to think that this is a jury of peers.

The courthouse was built in the late 1800's and sure looks like it. The public areas are grand and marble, but the offices have been retrofitted with shabby, leftover furniture, outdated plumbing (from the 20's or 30's at least), and really, really, bad flourescent lighting. I tried to get a Diet Coke out of the vending machine and it provided me with some sort of neon yellowish energy drink instead. Yay.

Some people treat today as a Holiday from work. Reading, talking (loudly - mostly the older ladies who see this as a social event), and laughing. Others, like me, are annoyed by the utter inconvenience of the whole ordeal and escaped to the "quiet" room which thankfully has some tables to work on, and people are, for the most part, either working on their laptops like me, or are sleeping.

The collection of Baltimore City Parade posters dates back to the 60's and 70's, and the badly faded art posters from the Baltimore Museum of Art, just make it that more depressing.

They just called my number - got to go serve.

posted by Broadsheet @ 10:36 AM