A Thursday I Do Not Want To Replay

Thursday was September 1st. Jury Duty.

Wednesday night I got off work early which had been prearranged. So at 1:15am, I was done with work, then took a shower, then let my hair dry while I watched HGTV, then finally went to bed. I am used to going to bed at 7:30am so trying to sleep so much earlier was just not working. I think I finally fell asleep around 3:30am.  The alarm to get the girls up for school went off at 5:30am. I never got back to sleep.

At 7am, I got out of bed and was going to put on the outfit I'd picked out and run out to Dunkin Donuts before heading downtown.. but I decided I'd better not wear jeans. So, I spent 15 minutes finding another outfit (since I quit working outside the home I have very little other than jeans.) Thank goodness for the go-to-pair of black slacks with the elastic waist band I have worn to every dinner date, funeral or Christmas concert in the last 3 years....

So I didn't have time to go to Dunkin Donuts and by the time I was downtown, all the fast food places had drive thru lines around the block. So, no drink at all. I'm always thristy. I got the LAST parking space in the free parking lot behind the courthouse. DOWN the hill from the courthouse. Ugh. Another lady was walking along as well and she asked if I was also called for jury duty, so we went together to find the back door we were to report to. That turned out easy to find.  The one surrounded by people holding letters identical to ours. We were handed a bright orange slip of paper telling us not to bring cell phones or cameras, and how much leeway was given for people who use tobacco products. I thought it was rather odd that someone who smokes would actually get special treatment. But I digress.

We were herded upstairs. Literally. The courthouse common area is tiny, and there is simply no room for people to just mill about. We were ushered right into the criminal courtroom (which looked tiny and ancient and desperately in need of a good remodel). They took us in groups of 6, sat us at a table, had us fill out info cards, time cards and gave us papers about parking and other info. Then we were sat on the other side of the courtroom for what seemed like ages as the rest of the people filled out cards 6 at a time.

There was a huge walled off place between the two sides of the courtroom benches. So, like in courtooms you see on TV, with the doubledoors where people enter with benches to either side of the aisle.. well instead there's two doors (one in and one out I learned later) each leading to a cramped little aisle and a room(?) between them that comes halfway into the room.  Whoever designed this courtroom was insane. I don't know what the room is, I didn't get a chance to check that out. Weird.

The actual jury seats are up on a platform and when it was my turn to sit in one with my panel to answer judge's questions about dr appts etc is September, I felt like I was being stared at by 200 people. I'm in seat 7 which is the far right seat on the first row. Right. Next. To. The. Witness. Stand. Yay....

Anyway, after we watched a lecture on how the criminal justice system works (lawyer shows make more sense to me now...), we sat in the jury stand, told the judge if we had anything going on in Sept, then were free to go.  Two and a half hours. Not bad. I learned a lot, and I decided if I didn't have a full time job, I'd totally love to be on a Grand Jury.  It sounded cool.

So, then I walked back down the hill to my car. By now, the sleep deprivation was starting. I knew I had errands to run. After I went home to change into my jeans and grabbed my budget book, I went to the ATM. I got out the max withdrawal amount knowing I'd need it all since I had to send in a house payment for the payment plan we'd set up for the past due amount. Then I went to my husband's store to get the money order and have lunch in their eatery and a drink finally. I decided on the chicken salad sandwich which was the special. I saw Christopher briefly, but he was super busy and couldn't stop to chat. The chicken salad tasted weird, but I was so tired I didn't know if it was the sandwich or just me. So I got a go box and left. Well, I tried.

I got to the Explorer and turned the key. Nothing.  Well, it did try but wouldn't start. It's been acting up like this for a while.  I knew it would start later after it's sat for a while.  No idea why.  But I really didn't want to just sit there waiting on it, and I had other things to do, so I decided to take the van.  Christopher had aired up the tires and put gas in it, and it still ran ok. It will only drive in 2nd gear, but I guess that's better than nothing right now. At least the AC works. It was pushing 93 degrees.

My brain was really running on fumes at this point. I realized he and I needed to do our cash advances, so I went back to the bank.  I pulled in and looked at the checkbook and tried to figure out how much I needed to withdraw so we could pay the cash advances then renew them each in turn and still have enough to pay them all. I HATE CASH ADVANCES AND I WILL KICK MY OWN BUTT IF I EVER USE THEM AGAIN AFTER WE PAY THESE OFF. Ahem... So, not quite being able to get it straight in my head, I wrote a check to cash at the window for enough to just pay mine. I decided I still needed to eat something, so I went to Arby's and they had the Roast Beef and Cheddar 2 for $5. So I got two of those and some curly fries.  I figured I'd give him the second sandwich later. 

By then the van was smelling hot, so I went back to the store and tried the Explorer. It started!  Yay! Back home, I went.
I called Christopher and told him to call me when he had a lunch break and I'd come get him to go do the advances together - but right then I needed to SLEEP. Well... after I ate. I really planned on just eating one of them, but darned if I didn't eat both those sandwiches. My body was all out of whack.  In fact I wasn't sure when the last time I ate anything was. So, then I got to sleep. I think it was around 1pm by then.

At 2:45 the phone rang. He was ready to go to lunch any time. I set the alarm for 3:10. I swear it went off 2 seconds after I set it. I dragged myself out of bed, go dressed again, and was just heading out when R and F got home from school.  I gave them each one simple chore to do which they eagerly said yes ma'am to then I left. Corina was at the store and came out to see me when I picked up Christopher. She has an old gray Buick... she spray painted polka-dots on it. sigh. So, then we were off to the bank again because finally my brain was a little less fuzzy and I realized we still needed $30. So, we finally got all those paid off, and I took him back to work. He had taken his lunch, so he could go back in and eat it. I decided to just put off the other bill paying til Friday and was going home when I realized I still hadn't gotten toilet paper or milk which we were completely out of. But I didn't want to chance turning off the Explorer again. Why can't we have one good vehicle. does anyone else have this kind of stuff happen to them over and over? I mean really.  So, I drove back home, got Faelyn and took her with me.  I gave her the money and a short list and the discount card and sent her inside to get the stuff we needed. She's 13.  She can shop. I however, wasn't sure my legs would move.  I knew I probably shouldn't even be driving. Thankfully the store was really close to the house.  She got the stuff quickly, and we got back home.  Then I noticed those two chores I'd given them were not done.  Go figure. So, I had them do those and I went to bed. I was around 5pm by then. The alarm went off at 6:30pm... That hour and a half sure felt like 30 seconds.

I sat down to work in just my PJs and got clocked in then went to change into my regular clothes one more time. I hollered at Rhiannon to cook two of the pizzas that were in the freezer for dinner. Christopher came home from work at 10:30pm and had leftovers and a 3rd pizza. I worked til 3:15am.  Then I actually stayed up another hour or so to just kind of wind down. I was running on adrenaline I think and I had to let that wear off. I got to bed around 5am. Christopher got the older girls up when he left for work at 5:45am. Thankfully Zoe had stayed with a friend overnight across the street and they were going to school together so I didn't have to get her up for school.   I was dead to the world til people started coming home at 3:15pm - Friday afternoon.

I ran some more errands, realized something in the budget was going to have to shift because we needed stuff like trash bags and more kids' lunch stuff etc. Still though, we're not planning on using the overdraft at all. We are sick of those fees and having to play catch up every paycheck.

At 7:30 that evening, I called the number to see if I was needed for jury duty on Tuesday. Yep. Panels, 2, 3, and 4.  I'm in 3.  Lucky me. Maybe I'll get this over with and they won't need my panel again. There are a few panels after all. I don't mind doing it.... it's the rest of the day and no sleep that's got to stop.  Sheesh!

Now it's Saturday morning, about 8am. I got to bed at about 3am. The phone woke me at 6, when ADT called for my husband but it was a false alarm - the opening manager was at the store afterall. Couldn't go back to sleep.  So here I am.

Today is going to be a big day around here. A HUGE project in the works. I've got a before photo already, and I'll blog about it later. Hopefully I'll remember to take some pics along the process. I hope we don't all want to kill each other by the end of the day either.

Then it's time for a new episode of Doctor Who!!  Hooray!

I hope your Thursday was better than mine LOL!  And I hope y'all have an awesome Labor Day Weekend!!

Patty