Spring Break - wooooooo!

We're all on spring break right now. I spent Monday fulfilling my civic obligation through performing my jury duty. I had to go all the way out to Martinez (luckily I had my mom's car). I didn't mind the summons for jury uty that much and I kind of thought it might be an interesting experience if I were put on a jury: I figure it's going to happen sooner or later anyway and I have spring break to do it right now. But when they brought us into the courtroom they told us that it was a criminal trial with the charges of murder and rape and there was the possibility of a death penalty. The judge said that the trial might last two to three months as well! Geez - screw civic obligation. I've got to  graduate. I, and half of the potential juror pool, applied for an exemption. My basis being the financial burden, setting my life back six months, and prior travel plans. The judgge let me go.

It was kind of creepy to be sitting in the same courtroom as a probable murderer. The judge introduced the defense, including the defendent, and the prosecution before telling us what the charges were. When the defendent, Richard Frasier, looked at all of us I could tell that he was trying to look as nice as possible but there was a look of guilt and extreme remorse in his eyes. He knew he had fucked up and that, in all likelihood, he was going to have to pay - big time. Once the judge announced the charges, many of the potential jurors gasped in disbelief and shock and the woman next to me sounded like she was hyperventilating. There he was, an accused and probable murderer and rapist, not fifteen feet away from us, with little more between him and us than a three foot tall partition and a 60 year old unarmed bailiff who looked more interested in hairstyles than justice.

Once I got home from Martinez, I looked up the specifics of the case and was shocked to see how strong the state's case against Mr. Frasier was. The details of the case were grisly and the whole episode left me feeling pretty queasy and uninterested in catching up on my assigned reading.

Anyhow, I've spent the last couple of days hanging out and working at the library. It's amazing how many people are still using the libraries even during spring break - then again I do work at the B-School, which is quite possible the largest depository of human ambition in the East Bay. It's also amazing how abrasive patrons have been over the past few days. Either people are getting worse or I'm just getting sick of dealing with their crap, or probably both. The one upshot of working this week is that I've been downloading a lot of news commentary in podcast format so that I can listen to it and learn when I'm doing some mind numbing task at the library.

Back to procrastination, more later.