As a stand-by juror, I was supposed to call in after 5 p.m. every day for a week to see if I’d be needed the next day. The idea of this annoyed the crap out of me. Lunch plans and meeting babies were put on hold. A few friends had jury duty recently, so I assumed I’d go in for a day or two like they did, then be dismissed.

Ha. Totally wrong.

I had to report Tuesday morning at 8:30. The central waiting room had wi-fi, which obviously made me happy. I was able to read e-mails and blogs that I hadn’t had time to that morning because I had to be there so early and I had no idea how the commute would be.

The theme of the day was waiting. We waited to hear what was going on. We waited for the TV to come back on. We waited while officers and our leader lady collected our summons (and boy was there mass confusion about what to tear off and who should hold onto their summons). It was such a process with so many people, and I couldn’t imagine having to deal with that every. single. day. At one point, while leader lady was taking attendance for a group, and people weren’t responding to their names, she bellowed “Say ‘here’ like you’re proud of the name your momma gave you.” It made us laugh.

Finally the first group of potential jurors was called early, just to get people out of the central waiting room because it’d become standing room only. About 45 minutes later the second group was called. The whole time the announcer called names, I repeated Destiny Child’s “Say my name” in my head, willing my name to be called so I could just get on with my day.

Surprisingly, it worked. Our group of 75 was taken down the street to the court house, where we then waited in the hallway for more than an hour before being let in the court room. Sixteen people were then randomly picked to fill the jurors box for questions. A couple were quickly let go and I was drawn to replace one.

Before I know it, after I’ve told all the people related to the case everywhere I’ve lived and for how long, what I do, whether I have children and confirmed that I understand common sense, I was one of three jurors picked. Minutes after I’d heard my name, I was being sworn in as Juror Number Three. It took two more days to fill the rest of spots, though we often had no idea what was going on. Sometimes we watched the rest of the process. Sometimes we were sent into a room with no explanation of why we were waiting there or when our court officer would be back for us. I joked we should bring games, solely to see our court officer’s reaction to opening the door to a game of Twister. I also tried to initiate some group bonding on the elevator as we crammed in to the leave building, hollering “Group 23 in the house!” That seemed to go over pretty well.

I have no idea what’s in store for me (besides going all day without Internet, a true struggle for me), but I hope to be able to share more insight once the process is over. For now, I’ve been sworn to secrecy. Which is a weird feeling.