Women in Comfortable Shoes

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05/15/2003: "12 Angry Men (Part 1)"

This evening, Travis County District Court Judge Margaret Cooper gave me a certificate, printed on fake parchment, commending me for "contributing to the maintenance of Liberty Under Law through the Fair and Impartial Administration of Justice."

I was a juror in a Travis County civil court case. While it wasn't an earth-shattering case, it still was an eye-opening experience. My head is full and I'm sure it's going to take several days and several entries to digest everything I've seen and heard for the last four days and then get it all out of my system. I'm probably going to get boring, so I won't be upset if you hit your Back button.

But first, a few anecdotes I recorded during lunchbreaks:

5/14 Noon, John Henry Faulk Central Library
I walked down to the library today for lunch. It was an easy walk, not like yesterday's mile-long trek to Sixth and Congress. I figured I could get some modicum of quiet here.

The surprising problem with hanging out at the courthouse is that it is NOISY. I never expected that. The streets around the courthouse are noisier and you can't really go down to the park, because it's too hot (already) and because the homeless have staked out the picnic tables as their home-away-from-home. So I'm here, writing, while a kid cries a few shelves away, some other guy is dropping VHS tapes on the floor, and a guy behind me is turning pages of a newspaper rapidly, without even pausing to scan headlines. Ah public places. I hate them.

The little boy continues to cry. I think I might join him.

I keep thinking I'll bring my iBook and type these journal entries, but I think of how heavy it would be, and reject the idea.*

* (Evening, 5/15, at home) Mel just read through this part and chuckled. "You know we've come full circle," she said. "You're the one writing in a notebook and I'm the one writing on a laptop."

5/15 Noon, Travis County Courthouse cafeteria
It was a simple request. The item was on the menu. It should have taken all of a minute or two to prepare. A hotdog. That's all I wanted. That's it.

First, she had to dig deep into the freezer to even find the wieners. she threw one -- rock-hard -- onto the grill, next to a frozen hockey puck of hamburger.

"Ma'am, we don't have any bread that goes with them," she said.

"You mean hot dog buns?"

"Yes. Would you like it on regular bread?"

Having had far too many bread-weenies growing up, I declined. "Can I just have a hamburger, then?"

She nodded and went back to assembling other orders for other people. In the meantime, I watched that wiener thaw and finally start to warm. It wriggled and squirmed like a nightcrawler on a hook.

After what seemed like forever, she picked up the wiener, cut it in half, put it on a hamburger bun, and handed it to me.

Going for Gold
If you have business downtown, I heartily recommend the Downtown Dillo, Capital Metro's free shuttle. I took the Gold Dillo all four days from the Toomey Road Park & Ride, despite the free-parking passes we received for being jurors.

We live in South Austin and I *hate* trying to park downtown, free pass or no free pass. I had absolutely no trouble finding a parking space at the park & ride and never waited more than a couple of minutes, max, for a Dillo. It would take me almost as long to get across the river at rush hour as it does the Dillo, so I just avoided all that driving and parking stress.

It was almost perfect. Almost. There is one element you really can't control and for which you cannot plan. Fortunately, it happened only once.

Halfway to the courthouse one morning, the driver stops to pick up a couple of people. As the last guy got on, an almost-visible wave of odor suddenly assaulted my nostrils. Oh my god, he smelled bad. The compelling combination of B.O. and cigarette smoke complemented his authentic, unwashed appearance and scraggly beard.

Fortunately the guy got off only a couple of stops later. Unfortunately, I had a headache the rest of the day.