Dismissed

Hello, it's been a few days. Things have been interesting. Scotty and Nicky were gone to young men camp last week, and my girls ran me into the ground. So much talking. So much fighting. So many needs. Due to that and other events, last week was brutal. 

Nicky came back a completely different color than when he left. That kid goes out in the sun one time and ends up like a perfectly toasted marshmallow. Well... a perfectly toasted marshmallow with a farmer's tan.

As for this week, which has only just begun, I'm currently one hour  two hours into jury duty. This is my 6th time having jury duty. Things have changed a lot with COVID, obviously, so this time is quite different than the others. The selection is being done online, so I'm logged into a conference call. I'm tied to my phone and laptop for several hours while also having a lot of downtime. It's slow-going, which is why I'm blogging (this post will just be a bunch of rambling and probably won't have any photos). I'm pretty far down the line, so the odds of having to serve on the jury are pretty slim. 

There are pros and cons to doing jury selection at home. It's kind of cool to go to the courthouse and see how things are done there - I mean, if you need to do jury duty anyway, you might as well get the full experience. Plus it's really fun to listen to all the other jurors introduce themselves and answer the judge's questions. People are fascinating, you know? The most exciting thing to see today is who's eating with their camera on (while our cameras are supposed to be off). But it's nice to not have to find a parking spot and go through security and spend all day in tight pants. And there are a few things I can get done during the waiting process (imma bout to load my pill container for the week. Things are going to get crazy up in here!) 

Nicky is home with me, but I enlisted my Nameless Sister-In-Law to take my girls for the day (refer to first paragraph). 

It's raining, which I'm so happy about. My yard needs a nice, big drink. The garden is doing pretty well so far. Fingers crossed! We used up the last of our cilantro over the weekend. We get about a handful of strawberries every day, and we should have peas any minute. I planted green onions three different times this year from two different packs (and brands) of seeds, and nothing ever came up. They didn't grow last year, either. I'm bummed, but there always has to be something that doesn't work out. At least half my garden has to fail or die. That's just part of the experience!

The baby chickens are getting huge. They can run away from me now quite effectively. One of them is super sweet and is my little buddy. The other two are naughty, but I love them anyway. Kind of like real kids. Every year, the CDC puts out warnings to NOT kiss your chickens. I didn't really understand why people needed to be told such a thing. Now I realize I'm the exact kind of person that needs to be told not to kiss my chickens. The chicks live in our living room still. We should probably relocate them soon, but until then... whatever. We just have chickens living in the house. They are literally two feet from the front door, so anytime someone comes to the house, there's no missing them. 

I've been experiencing a slew of emotions lately but can't cry. At some point, I need to have a grand outpour. Sometimes my eyes start watering a bit, and I'm like, "Oh, is this it?" and then everything just dries up. But I really, really need to sob like a baby. I just hope that when it hits, I'm somewhere I can let it happen without reserve. But knowing me, I'll probably be at Chick-Fil-A or my kids' orthodontist appointment. And something silly will set it off - like my food order will be wrong or I'll come out to the parking lot and find that someone parked too close to me. 

Well, it has now been two and a half hours since my jury duty started, and we were all dismissed. They ended up not needing a jury. I thought about lying to my sister-in-law and telling her I was chosen and would need to appear in court for the next three days in a row, and that I desperately need her to be my kids' mother for the duration, but my morals got the better of me.