If you recall...I was given the 50cent per hour raise at work for all of the third shifts I got stuck working because someone didn't come into work. Well I got a permanent raise out of that. It happened again Monday night into yesterday morning but there were some more immediate benefits to it...

Let me start by saying that my only worry about working second through third shift is that it always happens when I have to work second shift again. I wouldn't get home until, at the earliest, 9:30am. And I have to be on the train (to catch the bus to work) at 11:30am. So that would be less than two hours sleep depending on how quickly I feel asleep and giving me 20 minutes to get ready for work. But luckily when I got home I called Erica at work and she told me that the person that was supposed to be there on third shift overnight would come in and work my second shift!

So... here it goes: I tried calling the third shifter on her cell and then her house phone a few times each. Same result..nothing. So I called our covering store manager and told him that I'd stay but that I am not sure when I could make it there for my second shift the following day. He said that he would work hard on getting someone else to work but he couldn't guarantee it. That's the downside of having to work that. Granted...if it happens in a couple months again I will have a new car and live only 10-15 minutes from the store so I could still get plenty of sleep and work my shift as well. So that preys on the back of one's mind as they go to through the third shift.

At the beginning of the third shift I did all of the outside trash and refilled all of the printer paper at the pumps. These are two things that the new third shift worker has outright declared that she wouldn't do. And I am sick of hundreds of customers coming in for me to print out receipts that didn't print at the pump as it takes up a whole lot more time, they complain incessantly about it as if I could do something about it and it's the result of someone deciding that they don't have to do their job.

So I got those taken care of and I prepared 11 packages of hot dog buns for our hotdogs that we sell on the roller grill. I took out all of the inside trash. I was done everything I needed to do...that couldn't be done until later such as make all the coffee for coffee rush and put stuff on the grill for the breakfast crowd.

So I watched a movie on something that was a gift to myself. I've worked so hard and felt that I should put out money one thing for myself that may also help me through work. I bought a refurbished white SLIM Sony PSP with Darth Vader on the back and a couple more movies as I already owned three movies on UMD for it. I watched the UMD version of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. I looove that movie.

My first shift reliever was late and I didn't get out until 8am. So I worked 18 hours from before 2pm Monday until just after 8am on Tuesday. After I found out that I wouldn't have to work second shift I finally ate something and passed out.

I woke up to find that the Flyers game 7 of the first round playoff series was on. Chad and I went to the bar since he was off of work, for the third period and we were pretty well lit when the Flyers won in overtime. I wanted to go to the bar for the atmosphere of more people celebrating a winning goal. And thankfully it was a winning goal for us. It was amazing! That wouldn't have happened had I worked my scheduled second shift.

Oh yeah...I get paid an extra 50cents/hour differential for working third shift which puts me up to $10.35/hour. PLUS...at least two of the hours will be overtime and the OT will be based upon that $10.35 which brings it up to $15.175/hour which is a pretty sweet deal.

So that made it more beneficial.

And to top that off....I got my check for my car!!!

They'd told me that once I sent the key and title in that they would call me to tell me when to expect one of their couriers to personally drop off a check and have me sign a paper stating that I did, in fact, receive the check. So I was awaiting a call from them since I dropped the key and the title in the mail last Wednesday morning. But there was an envelope here with State Farm on it. I thought that it may just tell me when someone will be here to drop off my check. But lo-and-behold. It was the check itself! Another $1.964 to put into my savings account. Then will be Chad's income tax return of almost $1,400 and then the roughly $100 cash to pay me back for the rent I'd paid in his place months ago. And I'll be ready for a new car!

So except for thinking that I may need to go back in for second shift yesterday it all worked out pretty well.

Here's to things that work out well!

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I Think that I actually have enough time to give the second part of my Jury Duty experience the attention it is due. Hopefully I won't have to rush it too much to finish it in time. I cannot recall exactly what I'd mentioned in the first part so do not be concerned with possible continuity problems. But I believe it should be relatively seamless, starting with the beginning of the actual case. This is posted for those that haven't had to serve Jury Duty yet as a glimpse into what one's experience may be like. Please note that individual experiences may vary. And now without further ado...Jury Duty Part Two.

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I will start by discussing all of the waiting periods because they were relatively the same for all three days.

When you arrive at the courthouse after the first day you are officially a Juror so you get to go through a much shorter line to get through security/metal detection than those who are on the first day of Jury Duty when they have to go through the selection process. Then you go to a Juror waiting room. There are two juries in each room. You walk in the door and sign your juror number under the name of your judge so that the aide can keep an eye to know when all of the jurors are there for a particular judge. When all of the jurors for a particular judge are there the aide calls that courtroom to let them know everyone is present and then we wait for the courtroom aide to call back down that they are ready.

This is one of the times that a book is useful. But also this is where a lot of juror bonding occurs. Some also occurs in the Jury Deliberation room but there is more discussion about the case there. We are not allowed to discuss anything about the case in this waiting room. So we shared tales of calling into our jobs the previous night to inform our employers that we were selected for a three day trial. We discussed what we did the previous night. And then we discuss even more personal stuff and really get to know the other 13 members of our jury.

When the aide gets the call we are ushered up on the elevators to the floor of our courtroom which happened to be the 6th floor for us. The courtroom aide meets us outside the courtroom and ushers us into the Deliberation room. Let me add that our courtroom aide was AMAZINGLY HOT! And if your a male and serve jury duty you can only hope to get someone like her to gawk at throughout the trial process hah

When ushered to the Deliberation room the Defendant and his lawyer, the Prosecutor and several spectators are already there. We discuss a bit about the case and also finish conversations that weren't finished before we were sent up. Eventually the courtroom aide (god bless her) would come in a side door and tell us to line up in order by our Juror number. We were ushered into the jury stand while everyone was told to stand as we make our entrance (very rockstar!). Then everyone sits until the Judge is ready to enter. We are told to stand and he enters and tells us to be seated and he greets the Jury. We had a really good judge. He had a great demeanor and he helped make a usually unbearable jury duty service seems a little more bearable.

Then we hear testimony. See evidence. Hear from witnesses. View pictures. Hear facts and statements. This went on for 2.5 to 3 hours on average. The the Judge announced that we would be taking a lunch break and instructed everyone to rise as we were ushered back to the Deliberation room. After about 10 minutes we were ushered down in the elevators and at that point we were free to do as we wish for lunch as long as we were back in the waiting room (which doesn't accurately describe the room now that I think about it as I am sure that it would make one think of a completely different type of room).

After lunch we'd sign our number under our judge and talk more in the waiting room until called back up. The next few following steps were basically the same as how they went in the morning. Another 2.5 to 3 hours plus of the proceedings and we were told what time to be there in the morning and then ushered back to the Deliberation room after everyone was asked to stand for our exit. Once everyone had left the courtroom (for the most part) we were told that we could leave and we made our way out of the building for the day.

That was how the second half of the first day and the second and third days went. This was common throughout so I got them all out of the way to get to specific things which, of course, were different from day-to-day.

The first day I didn't feel too adventurous for lunch plus I was really tired because I had to wake up at 6am to get there on time which was rough when I'm used to falling asleep at 3 or 4am. So I just went to the 7-Eleven a half-block away from the court building. Bought a sandwich, a fruit cup and a can of Monster because I NEEDED it to help keep me awake.

The second day I felt a little more adventurous so I went to the Reading Terminal market by the Market East station (which is where I get off the train for Jury Duty and where I catch the train home). Now there's everything in there so I walked around trying to decide what I wanted. Then I saw it! Chinese food! I was sold. I ate delicious chicken and broccoli and yummy friend rice. Yes, of course this is "Americanized" Chinese food but goddamn I love it!

Now the third day we were instructed by the Judge that since it would be the last day of the case we would be staying in the Deliberation room and eating food that we had ordered from a Jurors' menu when we got there in the morning. So we didn't go out anywhere and had to stay in the room but the food was paid for by the City of Philadelphia =0) Of course our food arrived very late...about 20 minutes before our lunch break was scheduled to end...but we were starved and it proved to be long enough. I had ordered a delicious mandarin orange and chicken salad with some interesting dressing I hadn't thought of even being in creation but I wish I could remember because it was GREAT. But they serve it at Chilis so I will pay attention to it the next time that I go in there because it was delicious as all hell.

Now. Onto the actual trial time.

Of course the Prosecutor started the trial with his opening statement which introduced basic facts to us. An attempt to get us to his way/the 'states' way of thinking as we go through the trial. Then the Defense attorney made his opening statement in which he tried to sway us his way.

The first witness called was a gentleman who had arrived early to work every day as he usually did and then walked a few blocks to a convenience store as he also did every day to check his lottery numbers, buy more numbers and get something to drink for his shift at work. On the way back to his job he heard gunfire erupt behind him. He ducked behind a car to avoid being hit. Luckily no stray bullets came towards him but there were a lot of stray bullets considering that (I believe this is correct) 28 shots were fired. He said that young man came running towards him and was putting a 9mm semi-automatic handgun into a plastic bag. He said that he didn't notice him at first and was relatively close when he noticed him. But he maintained that he had time to see the young man's face and also the gun which had already been established as being the same caliber as one of the two guns used in the fatal shooting. During cross-examination the Defense attorney obviously asked how he could make out the Defendant's face AND the type of gun in such a short time. As were were told a few minutes earlier the witness is a security agent which made me believe that even in extreme scenarios such as this he would be better trained to get a visual ID and make out the caliber of a gun...more as a second nature then even TRYING to make both ID's.

We, of course, heard from a weapons expert about the guns that were used and other ballistics facts. And of course we heard from all of the police officers who responded to the call regarding the shooting, the forensics officers, the arresting officers, the homicide detectives and any other law enforcement official that had anything to do with the case.

We heard the previous testimony given by a deceased witness at the preliminary hearing for the Defendant. At first we'd speculated in the Deliberation Room that he had been murdered. But up until they read his testimony the Prosecutor would say only that he was no longer with us. As it turned out he WAS gunned down shortly after the preliminary hearing in that case. But I believe that was tried in another court case involving someone else and they couldn't necessarily tie it in with our case. But it definitely seemed like a coincidence to us.

Then we heard from an unwilling witness. He had a court order to appear at the preliminary hearing but never showed. The DA had offered to put him in Witness Protection which he did not accept. Although he later accepted a large sum of money for Witness Protection. They had to put out a bench warrant to get him to appear as a witness in the trial. Two police officers had to pick him up and take him to the courthouse. It was obvious that he wasn't going to testify against the Defendant. He swallowed hard a whole lot. They were reading from his initial police report about the shooting which he stated that the Defendant was one of the shooters. He said that he didn't remember making that statement. He admitted that his signature appeared at the bottom of each page of the written report. He could remember being taken to the homicide building and he remembered the names of both officers who had taken him there. He remembered the size of the room and everything in it. He remembered how often an officer came in to talk with him. He remembered how long he was there and where he went when he left. But he could only mutter "I don't remember that" when it came to anything incriminating against the Defendant. That made me feel even more wary...if there was that much to fear in speaking what he obviously remembers but also couldn't tell us that the Defendant wasn't one of the shooters...told us that he feared for his life what would happen.

We were shown pictures of the victim's body from the autopsy. Now this was a rough time for me. I can watch movies with 'gore' and real gore. But somehow whenever it's in a 'classroom' setting I suffer from anxiety attacks. I felt the blood rush from my head. I felt dizzy and very lightheaded. Things were going whiter and whiter. I was taking the deepest, slowest breaths I'd ever taken in my life. Luckily I avoided passing out which was no small feat!

The Defendant did not take the stand which is a right afforded to Defendants in such a case.

After the lunch I'd mentioned which was paid for by the state we were ushered back out to the jury box. The Prosecutor made his closing speech. The Defendant's attorney made his closing statement. Then the judge went on with reading the charges, what constitutes each charge and what we have to feel is completely true in order to find him guilty on those charges. This went on for quite a while. Immediately following the charges the 14 juror and myself were told that we were to leave. They let us get our personal stuff from the Deliberation Room and we were thanked by the judge and both attorneys for participating and we were given our certificates of service and sent home.

What sucked about this is that I spent three emotionally charged days hearing facts, testimonies, statements and seeing photos. The job of both attorneys was to emotionally draw us into the story. We heard of shattered lives and a lot of death. And then I had to leave before I was the first alternate juror but I had to be there and hear the entire trial in case something happened to another juror.

For three days I wanted to research info but knew that in all fairness I shouldn't. I wanted to tell Chad all about the case but I couldn't. As soon as I got home after the third day I tried to do some research but was coming up with zero. And the worst was reading the papers and their online sites trying to find out the verdict(s) and penalties if he were found guilty.

I'd honestly have to say that I believe he had been found guilty of all three charges (there was a fourth but it was rediculous and thrown in by the Defendants lawyer)...but I can't know for certain if that was actually true and have no idea how much time he'd end up serving if my hunches are currect and he was found guilty.

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Well that's my story. In a way it was exciting. My only regret..well I guess I have two...not knowing the final outcome and the fact that I lost a good deal of money for my two missed days of work. But the time off allowed me to finally get the haircut that I'd needed at the time and a slight vacation from work. Well from my day job. I picked up more hours at my night job. And I had to wake up earlier for those three days than I ever do for work.

But hopefully this gave you at least a little insight into the process. If you are a U.S. Citizen you should expect to go through this. I was lucky that I'd been of-age for 10 years before I'd ever been selected for Jury Duty. Honestly...I didn't try to get out of the case because if I were somehow at a Defendants table I would definitely want people just like myself...open-minded and careful listeners. Also somewhat afraid to make the wrong decision because of what it could mean to others' lives. This makes them more careful in their decisions. And despite how it may have sounded...I was very open-minded until the end. I know it may have sounded like I was feeling that he was guilty from early on. But I was definitely giving him the benefit of the doubt up until the end. But what everything added up to in my mind...was that he was guilty as hell.

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