Post deliberations

I’m in one of those states right now where I just can’t sleep. It’s been a weird day all around. The jury I served on deliberated for hours yesterday and then again this morning. We asked to hear some of the testimony repeated. We asked the judge to repeat the law to us. We talked and argued and argued and talked, but we absolutely could not agree, so it ended up a mistrial. At least this time it wasn’t just me. But I must say that my two terms of jury duty have not really reaffirmed my faith in the justice system.

Laura has poison ivy. Chris took her to the doctor this morning, which included handling all of the following unaccustomed activities:

1. finding a substitute teacher for his class.
2. remembering who our pediatrician is.
3. scheduling the appointment with the pediatrician (he was still trying to get them to answer the phone when I left this morning—after a half hour of calling—all perfectly normal for when the office opens).
4. taking my insurance card to the doctor’s office.
5. remembering how much our copay for doctor’s appointments is ($10)
6. asking for a doctor’s excuse for Laura to turn into her teacher tomorrow.
7. getting her prescription filled (and knowing about generics versus namebrands).
8. picking up Laura’s homework after school so she won’t miss all her work.

And I asked him to mail bills this morning and return an overdue library book too. He was grumping, but he managed just fine. I actually did get done with my case shortly before lunch, so I went back up to school to grade papers, which meant he also had to pick up Will and fix dinner (he cooked two Chef Boyardee pizzas—they turned out pretty good). Rough day for him.

I’m a little less than halfway through my grading. I absolutely hate grading the last papers of the semester. I have had people in the past few days asking me questions like, how many sources do we need again? Or, how do I cite a source? Things that either are written in the assignment, which many students evidently only see the first day when I go over it in class, or things that we’ve spent weeks on in class. I swear, I tell them why you have to start the papers back in March. And then I remind (or perhaps the word is nag) and remind and remind . . . I’m reading some very good papers, but so many of them are just a couple of drafts short of done. I read a paper like that and I can see what it would be if it were finished. But it’s not finished, it’s just been turned in.

Lisa, make a note for later: a person should never pay bills, serve on a hung jury, and grade final exams all in the same day. Duh.