4th Of July

So I realize this was a few days ago but I had to write about it. This was the BEST 4th of July I have ever had.

Let me first start by saying that I am not a 4th of July person. When I was in the 8th grade, our neighbor's house caught on fire from a bottle rocket and it scared me so bad I did not sleep in the house for a week. I slept on a lounge chair in my sleeping bag. Getting caught in a fire is probably my greatest fear.

I was also in the middle of a riot in downtown Huntington Beach in 1993. I had a firecracker explode off my leg and someone threw a flower down my shirt. So, two not so great experiences.

As a kid, we used to have block parties which were great but the house fire pretty much killed any excitement for me for fireworks. Don't get me wrong, I have no issues with firework shows like Disneyland. It is the ground stuff and illegal in the air things.

Fast forward to this year. My cousin, Melody, her husband, Tom, and their 31/2 year old son, Zach, were here from Missouri. I have not seen Mel or Tom in a long time. Mel and I were very close growing up along with her twin sister Merri. Both sang at my wedding. Along with Mel, Tom and Zach, John's BFF Star Wars buddy Todd and his daughter Calystia were also in town. They just moved back from Colorado.

Since my mom has been out of commission I hosted the BBQ at their house. We all had a blast. I did what I love to do, which is hosting a party with all the fixings. I had not had an opportunity to do in years. I am pretty sure I surprised some people with my *hosting* skills. The kids played together pretty nicely and just hanging out with family and friends felt really good. We were able to watch the neighboring city's private country club's fireworks show from chairs on my parent's street and the neighbor did some ground fireworks, which are illegal. I enjoyed those as well and did not freak out at the sight of them which is a nice change.

When we got home, I did make John check the smoke detectors before going to bed but the most important thing was that I really had a great time. The best part about the day???? I actually slept the whole night without any nightmares or freaking out that I wander around the house smelling for smoke.

Jury Duty

Those two words can send shivers down the spine of most people. That letter that tells you, *Congratulations, you get to sit around a room with a bunch of people you do not know trying to figure out if any life experience will get you out of it.*

I received one of those letters a couple of days ago. The kicker, it is NOT for Superior court but for Federal. It is not a one day, one trial type service but a be on call for 8 days or one trial. Nobody I know has ever has this service before and I am going on my second round of Federal Service.

I am almost 40 and I have had a jury summons almost every year since I was 18. How the hell does it happen that there are people who are my age and has NEVER had it?

I do understand the need for normal people to be able to sit on a jury to ensure that justice is served whether it is a guilty or not guilty verdict. I understand that we are the keepers of justice. The only problem with me being on a jury is I have slowly discovered that I pretty much hate stupid people. I do not want to be the keeper of the stupid or insane.

So for a brief, okay not so brief moment, I thought about not responding and ignoring that letter. Hell, I even searched the Internet to see what can happen to me if I do ignore it. What are they going to do, send the jury police after me? Like that is money well spent.

So do I toss it? No, I filled out my form like a good little citizen. I informed my boss of the letter and what that meant. John and I are working on a plan for him to drop off and pick up Shawn if he needs to. I am picking out a good book to read. We are covering all our bases.

I will serve my country as a potential juror and hope that I either get picked early or not at all. I do not want to be the poor sap picked on the last day of my call in service day and get some 18 day capital punishment murder trial.

Why do I now want to sit on such a case you ask...I could never not talk about it for that long and do not even talk to me about sequester.