My Annual Duty

December 3, 2011December 2, 2011 ~ JodiLea

The Jury Box I’m talking about jury duty.

Now, before I go into my ~~rant~~ story, I want you to know that I am a law-abiding citizen and I show up when summoned.

I have served on a jury for 2 trials now.

This seems like a low number to me considering that I am “randomly” selected EVERY F- -**1@G YEAR!! For the past 28 years I have received a notice in the mail from the court.

Twenty-eight summons for jury duty. All for the SAME courthouse. Extreme un-randomness* is going on here. Oh yes, and this courthouse is not near my town. That would be too convenient for me to serve in the area I actually live in. I have to take a bus to the transit station, then ride the train 25 miles to the not-so-good part of a major city. And walk four l-o-n-g blocks. This is not a happy thing for a small town gal (me) to be doing.

Oh sure, they pay me. But not for the first day anymore. What sucks is that the courts daily pay rate is lower than my daily transportation rate to get there. I did the math and I’m losing money when I’m a juror. Sigh…

They started doing something new for Monday summons dates now. Instead of calling (or going to their website) on Friday after 5:00pm to see if your number is up, now you won’t know until Sunday after 5:00pm. The Courts are closed on Friday’s so why can’t we find out Thursday night? Someone actually works at the courthouse on Sunday afternoon to make a recording and alter a webpage? There is something fishy going on here.

I hate having this hope over my head all weekend – “will I get lucky and not have to go in the morning?”, “Will the deal get cancelled?” I want to know NOW! Sigh.

So… Sunday evening (after the 49er’s beat the Rams), I have to log in and find out the bad news. I already know that my number is up because – I bet you can guess – it happens EVERY F–**1%@G YEAR. Looking at it is only a formality.

My hubby? He has gotten only 2 summons for jury duty (2 different courthouses, mind you) his entire life.

Now that’s random.

* un-randomness: (adj.) So far from being random it’s comical.
– taken from the “Words That Should Exist Dictionary”

Confessions of a Soap Opera Addict

October 7, 2011 ~ JodiLea ~ 3 Comments

I must wean myself off the damned things. My DVR is starting to fill up, and hubby and I have a lot of network shows that we tape. When your bedtime is 7:30pm you tape everything.

Eyes I do love my soaps! I got addicted all over again when I moved in with my mom last year. After she passed away, I moved back home and set my DVR to tape every episode. Watching them without mom was not as fun, and I should have quit then. But really good stuff was happening and I couldn’t let go yet. After they solve the mystery , I’ll stop taping them I told myself. And wouldn’t you know it, some other “can’t miss” exciting stuff started up before the mystery was over, so I had to continue on. ..

Pocket Watch I tape and save, but don’t watch them. Well, I do watch them when hubby is working on his shop (a.k.a. man cave), or before he gets home from work. But today I watched 2 days worth out of 30. I am starting to stress over how many I have to watch to catch up. I wonder what my therapist would say about that. Never mind. I know what she would say, and she would be blunt about it too.

I decided that I will turn off the auto recording of the soaps. I can watch the 28 days worth at my leisure. Then go back to checking in with them on the occasional holiday or sick day when I’m home during the week. But no more recordings! I will just have to put up with the advertisement breaks every 7 minutes.

I’m glad that quitting soap operas will be easier than quitting nicotine. Nothing in this world is tougher than giving up cigarettes. Nothing.

The Journey To The Other Side

September 30, 2011 ~ JodiLea ~ 2 Comments

September is National Menopause Awareness Month…

That goodness it’s nearly over. I feel overly aware myself. I passed along this awareness to co-workers, Crazy Chicks and my dear readers, so I feel like I did my part. Now I can begin research on October’s subjects of awareness. There’s got to be one more fun…

(If you haven’t had enough – More about menopause at Lifescript.com.)

As I journey to the other side (of youth and womanhood), I keep fighting what is happening to my body and my mind. The more I fight, the unhappier I become. Inside I feel 30-years old, but now my body is telling me it’s a lot older than that. Not subtlety either.

For example, this week my bad (“bulging” is the term the spine doctor uses) disc screams at me when I chose to change my position slightly. I say “Oh!”, “Yikes!”, “Eek!” very often. Occasionally, a sharp and sudden pain warrants a good old-fashioned “#&*%@!!” or even a “*&^#$$@@!” – yelled out loud at great volume. The sharp pain I expect (because I attempt to move), warrants those words, but mostly they stay in my brain and don’t exit my mouth.

The only thing I want hubby to do to me is massage my neck (it tenses when disc acts up). That and fetch my ice-pack and 800 mg of Ibuprofen when it’s time for them. It’s probably time for a spinal steroid injection again. That is a whole different blog post in itself.

This is not the romantic week-end hubby and I looked forward to all week. Sigh. Contrary to what young people think, it isn’t being married a long time that dulls the desire to have sex.

It’s the pain.