Vickie takes one on the noggin :(

Important note for those not in the know

• Vickie = my car
• noggin = head. Or in car terms...bumper

Driving to work Thursday morning, I'm pulling out of my apartment complex to turn left. A car is currently in the middle turning lane about to turn left INTO the complex. A gap in the traffic makes me think this car is about to go ahead and pull into the complex. Of course not! But I made the mistake of assuming she would go ahead and go. She did not...so I'm slamming on my brakes and now blocking the left lane of traffic trying to get into the middle turn lane. So far....my fault.

Here comes the inexplicable part - and I wish I could draw a picture or something to show exactly how inexplicable this was. The car in the turning lane was about 3 feet in front of me, just enough space where I can't go anywhere. And I'm sitting diagonal waiting for her to move so I can get in behind her. So...what is the absolute LAST thing you would expect this car in front of me to do? (I'll give you some time)

Thats right - she BACKED UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I honked....she backed right into me. Put a nice footlong scratch on my car's front bumper. Awesome, great. Just what I needed. So finally she pulls ahead, I get behind her, we get out and talk about it. I'm still somewhat confused and did feel partly at fault because I assumed (and we all know what that leads to...and it DID!) she was gonna turn, and then I blocked a full lane of traffic. Fine. So I decided we didn't need to do anything about this, we should just go ahead and go. She did tell me she actually worked in my apartment complex leasing office. Coincidentally enough, she is the same lady who the very day before, I filled out paperwork for saying I was moving out!!!!!!! So maybe this is something telling me I shouldn't move????

I don't know, but I really need to get my bumper painted...at least her car got the worst of it! Good girl, Vickie!!!!

Jury Duty (AKA - a complete waste of time)

So...I had Jury Duty on Wednesday. I was partly excited (maybe I'd get to be part of an interesting case? maybe I'd get to witness a jerry springer-type environment?), partly absolutely not wanting to be there. I don't know how many of you have had to go, so let me give you the play by play. And it starts off bad, very bad:

6:30am - Wake up (a full 90 minutes before I'd normally wake up)

7:00am - And, note, I'm skipping steps, because it should be noted I did in fact shower (but more importantly, my 2 month-old beard bit the dust too!)...damn tangents...anyways, step 2 is - get on Marta (something I normally avoid at all costs)

8:00am - Walk around downtown trying to find the courthouse. (Beth - it should be noted that I passed at least a dozen homeless people, and none of them bothered me!)

8:15am - Sign in

8:15-12:00 - Do absolutely NOTHING. There were about 250-300 people in this big wairing room. Not a single person got called in to do anything. I entertained myself with only 1 issue of Maxim, my J-Pod, some Sudoku puzzles, some text messages and a few games of Bejeweled on the phone.

12:00 - Names get read off a list, about 40 of them. These people are told to go ahead and go for lunch

12:30 - Next set of names are read...another 40 or so...including mine. We are told to stay, everyone else should go to lunch

12:45 - There has been a mixup, go ahead and go to lunch. When did Quizno's get to be so damn expensive????

1:45-2:30 - Back in the waiting room. of the 300 or so people, still none are called

2:30 - An announcement is being made and some judge is being introduced to everyone. The judge says "thank you all for being here, you've done an outstanding job. We have been working hard in the courtroom downstairs, and, to make a long story short...your work here is done, you are all excused, a check for $25 will be mailed to you."

So lets recap...about 300 people had to show up at 8:15am until 2:30pm (6 hours and 15 minutes) to do ABSOLUTELY nothing. And this wasn't the good kind of sit around and do nothing, this was miserable nothing. There were several TVs that could've been watched, but they were turned off. We were told to keep our noise level to a minumum (mainly because people were asleep, and I must admit, i'm pretty sure i dozed off at least twice)

Anyways, the moral of the story is...avoid jury duty at all costs! I would've MUCH rather go into work instead...and remember...for me...work = Aarons :(