Cook County Rocks!

So for the first time in 6 years I started thinking seriously about getting a job.
And then one landed in my lap!
Jury duty!

I couldn't have been the only person in that jury pool holding pen on the second floor of the Criminal Courts building on 26th St. to desperately want this gig. I was the model juror. "Hobbies? I'm reading Abe Lincoln's biography and I teach CCD." I assumed I would get picked, have a front row seat to a sensational trial, then write a best seller about it and retire.

I did get picked, I stayed a week and the case was a bore.

But it was an adventure, down to the awful food (same menu as the inmates next door? Because I typically don't mind industrial food) and the teeny tiny room with loads of dead bugs stuck in the florescent lights to which we were quarantined. Magazines in our jury room were from 2000.
We were advised not to use the 2 (!) water coolers in our room. I walked up the same set of stairs every day, and stepped over the same Dunkin' Donuts cup and cigarette butt 4 days in a row.
As a group, we were all herded by the deputy (nicely, but still) into the elevator, into the jury dining room, out the front door at night.

True to random selection, we had a diverse and friendly group.

At the end...I know this is corny, but I think we all had the satisfaction of having made the right decision. We deliberated for about and hour and a half. After the verdict was read the judge came in to speak with us and complimented us all for being a "good jury."

So now I'm going to get a real job.

please be kind if I'm a mess

and I couldn't do it any better thatn Rufus Wainwright.

Cigarettes and chocolate milk
These are just a couple of my cravings
Everything it seems I like's a little bit stronger
A little bit thicker, a little bit harmful for me

If I should buy jellybeans
Have to eat them all in just one sitting
Everything it seems I like's a little bit sweeter
A little bit fatter, a little bit harmful for me

And then there's those other things
Which for several reasons we won't mention
Everything about 'em is a little bit stranger, a little bit harder
A little bit deadly

It isn't very smart
Tends to make one part
So brokenhearted

Sitting here remembering me
Always been a shoe made for the city
Go ahead accuse me of just singing about places
With scrappy boys faces have general run of the town

Playing with prodigal sons
Take a lot of sentimental valiums
Can't expect the world to be your Raggedy Andy
While running on empty you little old doll with a frown
You got to keep in the game


Retaining mystique while facing forward
I suggest a reading of Lessoon in Tightropes
Or surfing Your High Hopes or dios Kansas

It isn't very smart
Tends to make one part
So brokenhearted

Still there's not a show on my back
Holes or a friendly intervention
I'm just a little bit heiress, a little bit Irish
A little bit Tower of Pisa
Whenever I see ya

So please be kind if I'm a mess