Jury duty and generosity

This is the kind of blog post I make so I can find the dates later.

I've been registered to vote since 1972, when they lowered the voting age from 21 to 18. I was 19 when I registered to vote; maybe 20. I've never been called for jury duty. Both my parents had. My dad was on a sequestered jury trial in Tierra Amarilla once for nearly a week. Keith has been called, twice.

Holly got a letter Friday with a long two-page questionnaire she's already returned, and she'll be in a jury pool for three weeks or so in April and May.

When Holly went to sign up at the community college, she was unable to prove her New Mexico residency on the spot, which is required there. She had a driver's license, but she needed something else. Utility bills in her name? But she lives at home, she doesn't rent or own a house. Well then, they said, just show us an automobile registration. Marty could've used that; the jeep is in his name. Holly, no car. So they asked if she was a registered voter. No, she said. Well, would you like to register?

So if she had been a non-resident alien on a tourist visa, but she filled out that voter registration paper, they would've given her in-state tuition status.

It was goofy, but there it was.

And now just a few months later, she's called to jury duty.

So I was able to tell her the story I had heard on the news just the day before of a woman who had feigned insanity (or irritating offness) to get off jury duty by dressing silly and behaving irresponsibly. Then she bragged about it on a radio talk show, the judge heard it, and now she's charged with perjury.

She left her hair rolled in curlers of different colors, shapes and sizes, slathered on "excessive" makeup and dressed in mismatched shoes with holiday reindeer socks and a T-shirt emblazoned with, "Ask Me About My Best Seller," the affidavit said. (http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/30732249/detail.html)

Holly's math class is a self-paced thing, and she's getting A's, so she figures she can get ahead some, and tell the teacher she might need to miss some classes, and that it won't be a problem. She has a once-a-week mother's helper job, and that won't be hard to re-schedule if necessary. And they're paying jurors minimum wage now. That was news to me.

I don't have photos to go with these stories.

 
Gratuitous non-related photos: Marty and Ashlee dressed to go to Josh and Mandy's wedding on March 10, and some of the chickens Holly was house-sitting (along with dogs, and the house itself) that weekend, too.

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Saturday morning after Holly's jury duty news, Keith went to Costco. He was in line behind a mom and a two-year-old (or so) girl. He said he had seen them shopping, and the mom was pointing things out and telling the little girl the French names of them. When they got to the checkout, her debit card didn't go through, and she didn't have an American Express card, the only other kind of card Costco accepts. So Keith paid for her groceries with his, and she got his name and address and promised to send him the money.

Keith said there were little old ladies there, and they were all touched and saying how sweet, how nice.

It has been a little over $100. I asked if he had gotten her name and info too, and he said no. He felt pretty confident that she would pay him back, but if she didn't we could afford the loss. He said there was a time we couldn't have, but now we can. I think it's as cool a thing as any to do at tax refund time, or any time. I've helped people at checkout lines when they were a little short, and I've let lots of people go in line in front of me when I wasn't in a hurry and they seemed to be, or they only had a few items and I had a cartful, but Keith's story is a big one, and I'm glad he did that.