Today was cold again, but then again it is winter. January is creeping to an end and it shows. Last night just hung out with Bill, not doing much of anything. Watched Heroes, which was totally engrossing and what is even more surprising was Live from Studio 60 was really enjoyable right up to the end where it was to be continued next week. After that was the Daily Show with Jon Stewart and his guest Bill Gates. Very funny and the Colbert Report was great too. A good night for TV, which doesn’t happen too often excepting Thursdays.

Went to sleep in Bills arms last night and that was nice. Once again he was active and headed out the door after kissing me goodbye while I stayed in bed for the longest possible time. Today was certainly an out of the ordinary day for me. I had Jury Duty and got my act together and wore a suit and tie since there was the chance that wouldn’t be picked for a trial and would be released earlier, like what happened years ago. The only stress I had was trying to find my passport in case official identification would be required.

I found it and headed out the door much like I do everyday at around 7:30. I sent a message to Juan in the morning after checking my emails on Bill’s computer before I headed out. I walked through Church Square Park much like I used to when I would go to work at McMann and Tate. Nothing had changed at all and I walked over to the train, saw Plantain Man in the window of Natural Plus across from City Hall but he didn’t see me. Got on the train only this time I was headed to Journal Square, which required a transfer at the Pavonia/Newport Station.

Got to the courthouse which was not so hard to figure out since I had a general idea of where it was, within walking distance from the Path train. I went through the metal detectors, put my bag on a scanning machine and came through with flying colors. No weapons on me. I made it to the 4th floor and signed in and waited, sitting in a pew, which brought back so many memories of discomfort, and going to mass. I settled in and read the rest of last week’s New Yorker, taking pride in the fat that I was caught up. I was there before 8:30 as stated on the paperwork mailed to me last month.

Quite a few people strolled in around 9:30 or even later. No explanations given. We had to watch 2 videos about the Jury system and how it applied to us. The second one featured the Chief Justice of the NJ State Supreme Court telling us about how she had Jury duty back in 1997, noting that even judges have to attend Jury duty just like us. I wisely brought a book with me, ‘I, Claudius’ by Robert Graves. Julio had gotten it for me a few years ago and now I had the opportunity to read it.

It’s a great read, especially if you’ve seen the series on Public Television or have the DVD’s which Bill had gotten me a few years ago as well. My name was called with about 50 other people and we had to leave the modern courthouse built in the 1960’s and dedicated to Nicholas Copernicus for some reason, and trooped over to the older courthouse, built in the early part of the 20th century I think. Cellphones shut off we sat in a very warm and very stuffy courtroom listening to Judge Edward O’Connor tell us about more of the Jury section process.

Names were called for a civil suit, people were questioned and some accepted, some rejected from the jury box. My name wasn’t mentioned and when both parties and the judge were satisfied with the selections we were all told to go back to the modern courthouse. There I sat, reading ‘I, Claudius’. At 11:30 we were told to go to lunch and come back at 1:30. That was ok and I wandered around the area known as Five Corners and had a hamburger in a greasy spoon and read the papers with my juror badge hanging on the outside of my suit jacket.

I communicated with Rand at various points of the day. He fixed my computer and was wondering if I wanted a different model. I said it was up to him if he thought that was best. I do trust Rand implicitly on computer matters. I was very much into reading the book when at around 3:15 they let us go for the day, telling us there was no need to come back the next day, we were free for the next 3 years from Jury Duty.

I caught the train back to Bokeyland, nobody really on the street. Rand was not around, Bill was at work, and not answering his phone. I called up Golden Staffing and told them I would be in tomorrow which may have given them some relief, though I wonder if they think something is up what with me being legitimately sick a few weeks ago, and now with this Jury Duty. It’s all on the up and up so I shouldn’t have anything to worry about.

So now, waiting to hear from Rand, Bill’s home with his new humidifier and I’m at his desk top writing on his Mac on this cold evening in January. All in a days work.

Rand lives! Nothing bad happened. He didn’t fall off the face of the earth. He’s alive and well and presently in the custody of my computer, which may or may not be on it’s last legs. Rand has been in the habit of finding computers that have been thrown away and he checks them out for parts which they almost always have. Something salvageable. Wireless cards, mother boards. I just left his apartment and he had about six computers all fixed up and ready to go. One is earmarked for someone RoDa’s baby’s mother’s family. One could be for me if the pc that I have is beyond repair. I carried my computer over to Rand’s and had to make the trip back home since I forgot the Windows XP disc
It was cold out.

Once again this is being written through the courtesy of Bill’s grace. My baby was asleep in the bed when I came home after spending most of the day in the VA hospital with his father. His father is 84 and a veteran and had some major toenails that needed to be hacked off. You can use your imagination or perhaps go rent ‘My Beautiful Launderette’ and see the son clip his father’s toenails. It’s right when Daniel Day Lewis phones for the first time.

I just got off the phone with Rand who has seen the pc come back to life, with Rand pointing out the Hot Hispandex picture on my desktop. I’ll swing by and pick it up after my first day of jury duty. That’s right, JURY DUTY. I’m actually looking forward to it. I had gone once before when I was still living in Weehawken. It was just a quick in and out back then. Didn’t even have enough time to read whatever it was I had brought. This time, I think they’ll keep me a bit longer, which creates a weird vibe at work though I did tell them on my first day that I had jury duty at the end of the month and sent them calendar invites as well.

So perhaps the weird vibe is all in my head. It wouldn’t be the first time. Work is good at Golden Staffing. It was difficult getting out of bed once again this morning and with Bill sleeping at his folks for his father’s sake, it was a big old lonely bed at that. I rallied, showered, shaved, had cereal and didn’t know what else to do since there was no email to check. Well there was but in order to negotiate the keyboards and whatnot, it just wasn’t worth the usual time to sit and check.

If all goes well tomorrow I’ll either be sitting in a courtroom in Jersey City or sitting at my desk on west 44th street. At the end of the day, I can look forward to getting old occasionally faithful back, Big John it is called. Named by Gazi Ali from Wanker Banker. It is a former office computer that wasn’t doing anything so they gave it to me. I was considerably stressed about the state of Big John, stressed enough to look at computers online. Desktops and laptops. Bill has both. Juan and Julio have laptops. One’s a Mac one’s a pc. But Big John is scheduled to be back tomorrow. Cross your fingers.

Rand lives and maybe Big John does too!