Friday, September 16, 2011

One Interesting Afternoon

Yesterday started out as any other flex day. I didn't have much planned except for a doctors appointment which has become a pretty normal occurance on my days off. After the appointmen I went for a long workout since the night before I had only been able to get half of mine in and then was suppose to meet up with Andrea to watch a movie and hang out while Austin and Avery took their afternoon naps. Notice that I suppose to there.

I think I should have known something was up when Andrea got off work late. Although in all fairness this wasn't anything new. The poor girl hardly ever gets off on time, so I really didn't think much about it at the time. But I'm pretty sure this should have been the first sign that something was a miss.

The second sign came while I was at OT trying to rent a movie from the Blockbuster machine there. It took me three times, yes that right THREE times, to the darn movie! First it told me I had the wrong zip code, ummmm... pretty sure I know where I live, the second time it told me the movie couldn't be dispensed, and finally the third time it came out. Recently Andrea, Adam and I had watched Adjustment Bureau. (For those of you who haven't seen the movie it's basically about a group of people who have decided te path you are "suppose" to be on and if you start to get off that path they will throw an obstacles in your way to get back on that path. Nothing major just stuff like someone spilling coffee on you or a bus being late) Looking back it realy seems like the Adjustment Bureau may be something more than just a movie made up by Hollywood.

Finally with the movie, drinks, two very yummy cookies, and Nikita in hand I made it to Andreas. For a bit it was just a normal afternoon, we talked while she did some laundry and then just hung out for a bit before going to pick up the kids from the sitter. One of the best parts of my day came when we picked Austin and Avery up. Austin was so excited to see me and it just melted my heart! That child really knows how to work me and get pretty much anything he wants.

Nothing was to exciting on the drive home, Austin sang to us a bit and Andrea and I just talked. We got back to Andrea's and I took Austin outside to play while I tried to get Nikita to go potty. At some point I looked over to the fence and noticed that on the other side there were two dogs that weren't nomally there. I asked Andrea about it and she was a little confussed because she thought the people had moved out. But really neither one of us had a second thought about it. We went inside got Austin a snack and sat down to watch the movie.

We probably weren't more han 20 minutes into the movie when Ausitn came in and said "The neighbors dogs are in the house". Andrea and I just looked at each other and thought Austin was just playing with us. But he said it again a little more forcefully and if someone has been watching us you would have been able to see us process what he was saying and then jump off the couch. Andrea grabbed Avey, I grabbed Austin, we put our shoes on and walked to the kitchen. And sure enough there were two dogs eating Al's food and a third one in the bathroon head frst in the toilet trying to drink as much water as he could.

For a few minutes there was some serious chaos. We didn't know if the dogs were nice, which it turned out they were really sweet, we wanted to make sure the kids were safe, as well as blocking Al and Nikita away from the new dogs. Andrea was on the phone with the landord for the house next door, who said they weren't his and didn't care what we did with them. I tried to get the three new dogs into the back yard so we could get them away from the kids.

It turne out that the dogs belongs to the people the landlord just evicted. So these terrible people just moved out and left these three very sweet dogs there with out any food or water. By this time Andrea and I are both fuming about this. I looked down and noticed that two of the dogs had tags from their vet. We called the vet who told just the would contact the owners they had in the system and then get back to us.

While waiting for the vet to call us back we gave the three dogs some food and water. It broke our hearts to watch how fast they scarfed the food down. It had to have been days since they were last feed. The whole time I was just getting more and more frutrated with these people for leaving these dogs. I kept asking myself how some one could be so selfish that they would just leave three small dogs who really couldn't take care of themselves there to starve. I would then look at Nikita, who is basically my child, and just get more upset.

Andrea has started dinner while we waited to for the vet to call us back. I was holding Avery, and this is then the time that Austin decided he wanted my undivided attention. If I sat down Avery would start to cry, but I'm also convinced that she hates me, so there was lot of walking going on. The phone was ringing off the hook as we tried to fill Adam in, as well as Andrea's sister in law, Amy and nephew Brian that were on they're way over for dinner. So of course at the point the girls across the street over to sell Andrea some stuff for their school.

When the vet finally called us back we learned that the owner the vet had on file had given the dogs away and the phone number they gave the vet for those people was disconnected. However, we could bring the dogs in to them and they would take them to the human society if they weren't claimed in 24 hours. We also learned that we could have called animal control and that animal control could charge the people with a felony for abandoning the dogs. As soon as Amy and Brian got there we put the three dogs in Al's kennel and they took them to the vet.

To say the least it wa a crazy night. Once the dogs were at the vet we sat down and had a very yummy dinner, talked a bit and then it was time to put the kids to bed Austin yet again found a way to melt my heart by asking me to pick out his movie, and letting me read his bed time books to him. We then said our prayers and he was off to bed. Let me tell you there is nothing sweeter in the world than having a three year old tell you he wanted to pray for you. It really was a moment that filled my heart.

It was about 8:30, only about six hours later, that we finally were able to sit down and watch our movie. Needless to say by the times I got home last night I was exhausted and realized that through out all of this I didn't take any pictures. And this would have been one of those situations that really should have been documented!

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Jury Duty... It really isn't all that bad!




So like most people when I got the letter in the mail saying that I was picked to be in a jury pool I had that moment of oh great, I really don't want to do this. To be honest it wasn't coming at the best time. I would have to report one week after I returned back to work from having surgery. I was pretty sure that this would go over like a lead balloon with my boss also, but what are you going to do?

So Tuesday morning I show up to the jury assembly room a tad late, found a seat, pulled out my book and prepared to be there for a while. With in a few minutes they started calling out numbers and I was in the first group to be called. We were herded like cattle out of the room and upstairs to a large court room. After getting our assigned seats we waited for the lawyers to come in. At this point I wasn't sure what to expect.

After a few minutes the lawters for the prosecution came in, it was a little uncomfortable, they sat in their chairs a stared at us,looked at the seating charts and the stared some more. What do you then? Stare at them back? Look away? I honeslty wasn't sure! After a few minutes of this the lawyer for the defense came in and so did the defendant. This really took me by surprise, I really wasn't prepared for him to be there.

There was a lot of show boating from the lawyers and the same questions asked over and over and over again in 40 different ways. Picking on this person or that person for one reason or another. Finally they let us break for lunch while they picked the jury. I wasn't expecting to be picked but was fascinated by the process so far. There were thirteen of us picked to sit on the jury. Twelve would actually end up serving and one would be an alternate but we wouldn't know who that person was until we were ready to deliberate.

The trial it's self was rather short, and luckily we came to a verdict pretty easily. But the really amazing part was seeing the system at work. We are so very lucky to live in a society that we have the right to a trail by a jury of our peers. So many people do not have that luxury.

I want to encourage people to embrace jury duty if they get called for it. Yes it can be a pain, and yes it can come at the wrong time, but it is part of being a citizen of our great nation. Most people would want the right if they were in the position of needing it so why not take a few days and embrase it.