Cursing under the breath and public confession

I was on time for jury duty, but other people apparently thought the appointed time was up for negotiation, including people showing up for jury duty (late) and those officiating the process.  It was standing room only, and I stood for a good half hour before a seat was available.  I was seated by a girl I knew from back in the day.  She's a bit wacky, and therefore she was slightly entertaining for the next half hour of waiting.  Yes, total that, it was one full hour of waiting, doing nothing, but waiting and listening to my long lost acquaintance tell me how much she cannot stand being married and being a mother.  She didn't even try to sugar coat that mother thing with ... "but I wouldn't take anything for them."  She just told me all about her five year plan and how she would NEVER get married again once she was out of it.  She said if she knew what she knew today when she got married, she would not have gone through with it.  I'm not overstating her story here, she really hates being married.  I know this because the last time I saw her (and that has been a long time), she was VERY unhappy then.  She described their marriage ........ "He works, I work, he comes home and expects me to have a full course meal on table, even though I am schlepping our children from one grueling outdoor activity after another (she apparently hates being outside and hot)."  She said she prays for rain so she doesn't have to be a freaking soccer mom ... she hates all of it, and she was not even speaking in a conspiratorial tone.  She was just out with it.  She said her children are ungrateful and selfish beings who basically suck the life out of her.  Now, I have no children, so I really could do nothing, but sit and listen.  However, I was almost afraid that those around us were going to beat us with their handbags or rolled up newspapers.  She just railed on, oblivious to any and everyone .... she said her husband will come home and tell her that he is going out with one of his friends, but that if she wants to do the same, that she feels like she has to ask.  I said ... why is that?  She said, because if she didn't, he would make her miserable when she got home.  I asked her if her husband knew she was unhappy.  She said ... oh yeah, he knows.  I asked her what he thinks about that.  She said ... well, he says he is sorry, but sorry doesn't fix anything.  She doesn't appear to be battered physically or beaten down mentally. She seems lively and on point with future plans that don't include him. So, I can only imagine that some (maybe most) of the responsibility lies with her to shape the reality that she is currently living. I'm just saying, but what the hell do I know?

I was so busy listening to her talk that when they started calling names for a jury pool to covene on Thursday, I actually cursed (under my breath) when I heard my name called.  And when they called it a second time because I was too busy cursing to answer the first time, I answered .... "Sorry, I was busy cursing back here.  See you Thursday!"  Thankfully, my uncensored and unintentional confession served as more of an amusement for the crowd than an offense.  At least, I couldn't hear the tsk tsks over the ripple of laughter.

Whew .... what an ordeal.  I feel like I have already sat on a jury and rendered a one woman verdict.  Now, I have to go back for another round on Thursday to size up the "real" offenders.

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