Jury Duty

Today I had my first time doing jury duty.  I was nervous because my cognitive issues cause me not to understand things easily.  Honestly I did want to do it, I thought it would be near, but I was really second guessing myself and my ability to understand certain issues.  I even had a problem understanding the brief explanation of the case, which is the point that I realized I shouldn't be on the jury.  Luckily I got off because I knew one of the witnesses.

Something really upset me though during Jury Duty.  Of course, everyone that was in the jury pool was complaining about being there, being out of work, etc.  Before we even got started the woman sitting in front of me handed over a letter to the clerk of courts, and was immediately excused.  Immediately the people sitting behind me started saying "oh she's so lucky."  "I wonder who she knows to get out of it".  "Aw, come on, she can get off that easy?  That's bull shit."  "I wish I had that letter."  The letter the woman had was from the hospice, stating that a family member was in the hospice dying.  I was so pissed off at the people for saying what they said.  I know they more than likely weren't paying attention and didn't see the letter head (bright red and giant from the nationally recognized hospice), or they were too busy saying how lucky she was to hear the clerk of courts say "I'm so sorry you and your family are going through such a horrible time during the holidays."  --Even though when the clerk said this it was audible enough for the whole room to hear.  People just don't think, and in their ignorant rude rants, they stated loud enough for this poor woman to hear that they'd rather have a family member die than to serve a couple days on a jury.  I was really upset, and I should have turned around and said something to those people, but I'm not as assertive as I wish to be.

I've recently been having an issue with the things people have been saying on facebook.  I can't stand it when people are complaining about the silly things.  Their lives are so simple (void chronic illness) and they should really appreciate it.  I wish I could be more assertive and tell people that, 'hey. so what if the grocery store ran out of bananas, life isn't over.'  Or when people complain about having a headache, yeah that sucks, but I had a migraine for every day for 7 or 8 years.  I know these things suck for people who don't have to deal much, but they should look at themselves from a distance and see that their lives aren't that bad.  I know I'm guilty of complaining, of course I am.  But I'm very aware that there are people out there who are worse than I am.  I always attempt to find the silver lining in stuff.  I try not to complain publicly about petty stuff.  Everyone complains, but I guess what really gets me is the serial complainers, where that's all they talk about.  I probably sound very hypocritical to people, but please, if you think that, go back through my status updates on facebook; the only complaint that's on there is that I had another bullseye rash appear.  I don't complain about petty things, because I know they are just that, petty.