Productive

Today was productive--at work. I did have jury duty, but it was blissfully short. We didn't have to arrive until 10:45. I had an appointment in the morning so I didn't go to the office. Jury duty only lasted about an hour. The court officer had lunch delivered for us (a first), so we ate sandwiches and waited for the call. It came about 11:30. We filed into the courtroom, in our usual order, and took our seats. (We sit in assigned seats, by juror number, so we have to walk into the courtroom in the same order every day.)

We were in court for maybe 15 minutes. The last piece of evidence was read into the record and then we were dismissed for the rest of the day. It took me a few minutes to gather my things and I left. I figured I'd go to work, but before I did that, I sat out on the Mall for about half an hour and enjoyed the beautiful weather. Maybe I even did some knitting. Then I went to the office. And I worked.

I was quite productive. It only took three days to get back into the rhythm. I got a few things done on Thursday, more on Friday and, today even more. I plan to do some work at home this week and I'm confident I'll get it finished.

My good work buddy, TR, was there--he was on travel last week--and he stopped by to say hello. I told him some jury duty tales and we talked about the meeting I had on Friday. TR said, "You should know, we miss you around here."

"Really?"

"Oh yeah, something will come up and we'll say, where's Jamy? She'd know about this."

"Oh, you mean with computer problems?" I’m the go-to person for any computer questions.

"No, no, other things." TR said and laughed.

"Oh, really? That's…I didn't know."

TR's comment and my boss's compliment on Friday made me feel good about work. Actually getting work done felt even better. I've always thought I'd be most productive if I worked a shorter day--8 hours is just too much. Five hours is much more reasonable.

Tomorrow, it's back to jury duty. We'll hear closing arguments and, after that, go to deliberations. I'd say we have at least another week, possibly two, before it's over. I'm finally starting to miss my office, the small social interactions at work, the ability to be productive--and the chance to talk about whatever I feel like.

Jury duty has taken the majority of my time for the last seven weeks and I can't talk about it even with my fellow jurors. It's frustrating. But much more frustrating is the way it regiments my time. I'm glad to be of service but I'll be ready to get back to work when it's over. Who woulda thunk it?

Grateful for: work.