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If you are blonde, don't press any buttons, you'll just mess it up."

Jury Duty

"California, The Greatest State In The Union"

(Opening sentence in the Juror orientation video) So as you may have already guessed, today I fulfilled my "Civic Duty" and what a rush that experience has been. You can ask many of my close friends and family and they will tell you I have dreamed of this day for a very long time. Some might call me crazy, in fact I think just about everyone who was summoned would back up that statement, but for me jury duty was exhilarating. At first I will admit that I was a bit peeved to find out I was report today seeing as it was 12:45am and I was calling from work expecting to hear the old "you do not have to report Thursday...please call again Thursday after 7pm to see if you report Friday" but to my dismay I heard a much different message. One that asked my to wake up in 5 short hours to be at the Norwalk courthouse by 8am. At first I was pretty much angry seeing as Thursday is a much cherrished day off and I had plans for lunch with Katie and Maddie. But eventually as I made it home, checked the email and finally slipped into bed around 2:15am, the reality of the situation began to sink in....I finally had my jury duty. So at 7am I arose to give a quick phone call to Amberlee-see we both were summoned and in the same group meaning we would both need to be in at 8am and since I had not recieved a phone call from her yet, I figured she may have forgotten to see if we needed to report. She had. Next I got the coffee brewing and decided I might as well shower, you never know who you will meet in court. Amberlee was there in no time and we were off. As we arrived we quickley headed off in the direction we thought the courthouse was in, forgetting it was right next to the parking structure we parked in. Finally at 8am we walked into an interesting looking office building where a confused security guard told us we were definatly in the wrong place. We took his directions and made it to the jury selection room by 8:15am. The next hour and a half was filled with orientation instructions and silly questions asked by other jurors like "I dont understand question 6b?"....."Well sir if you read question 6a it says 'if you answered NO to question 6a then skip 6b" "oh ok." and "right over there are the bathrooms and on the wall are the payphones" "Excuse me miss....Can we use those payphones" ( ahhh....I know she had so many different answers shooting into her head then the one she gave...and if you were on trial would you really want that guy deciding your fate? By 945am we were on a break until 1030am. (I would have been ok with no break and arriving at 9am). Amberlee and I headed out to the roof of the parking structure to get my book that I left in the car and try and catch some rays in the 85 degree heat. After break I picked out a 500 piece puzzle and made Amberlee help out. At 1100am the lady informed us that she would be calling names and these people had to drive to Bellflower for a trial there at 1pm. You wouldnt believe the intensity of that moment as jurors sat at the edge of their seats clinching their fists and praying they would not hear their name. After about 15 names, neither of us had been called. WHEW. Then 10 minutes later the lady says ok now for the next group off to Bellflower! Yikes!!!! another 15 names....not ours. WHEW. 10 minutes go by....ANOTHER group to Bellflower!!! 15 more names....not ours! then at last she says that is the last of the groups going there. WHEW. Its about this time that Amberlee pulls out her camera and tells me to give her the thumbs up because our row of people are all on their way to Bellflower and we are still in it! I felt as if I was on some elimination game show where I wanted to be the last one standing! Like I hadn't been voted off yet...still hanging on for another round. Well it wasn't 10min later that she called another list of names and this time I heard my own. Cursed by the picture! I was instructed to report to courtroom "P" for Party at 130pm. Then we were all dismissed to lunch...amberlee still not assigned. For lunch we had Italian across the street with Katie and Maddie. We even got free sodas for being Jurors! At 130pm Amberlee and I parted ways as I went to the party room and she back to the assembly room. Everyone was waiting outside the courtroom as there was a sign on the door instructing us to. We waited....and waited...and finally at 3:00pm a lady came out and said I have good news and bad news. The bad news is you will not be a part of this trial today....the good news is you will probably get to go home but first you must go back to the juror room. The case had resolved itself and our services would not be needed today. Ill this waiting and anxiety and my jury duty was over...I was sad. We were dismissed 15min later and since Amberlee was no longer in the room I gave her a call. Turns out she got assigned to a case but the couldn't do the selection today so she has to go back tomorrow!!!!

I will miss my Jury duty...better luck next time.

Prayer Request

So a couple days ago I was chatting with my friend Julie who works with Athletes In Action. She is the one who I met on my first tour to Ireland. She joined staff up in canada and so when I did soccer project up there, she was there and she also was on the Brazil tour with me. Well, she is leading the Brazil tour for the second time this summer (her 3rd trip) and was telling me about a need for more people. She asked me to go and said I would probably be on the staff side of it, leading a small group while there. The tour is going to be much like the first one I went on, with visits to schools, orphanages, and games against the same teams that we have started to build relationships with. The trip leaves in early June and ends on the 23rd. I would also have the opportunity to stay longer with Julie and another staff member to follow up with the ministry we have started. The positive aspects of this trip shouldn't need to be explained. What is making my decision a hard one is the facts. I would have to quit my job a month earlier then I was planning (I was planning on July 1st as I go to Mexico for a month on July 6th). It is more expensive this year and I have no time to support raise like I did in the past, meaning most of the cost would fall on me and....well I guess thats it as of right now. So basically I would love some prayer right now that if it is God's will that I embark on yet another journey with AIA, that I would see it and know it and that I would be going for no other reason then to serve him.

3 Days Off!

So my last three days have been amazing. Not that they were anything just special, just not work. Tuesdays and Thursdays are my normal days off because I have class at night but this week I also had Wednesday off thanks to a Holiday (from Christmas) that I hadn't yet taken. So I was able to complete tons of errands including the librabry (I have some papers to write for class), the bank, and the grocery store (made some pico). I was also able to finally have lunch with Kate and Maddie again and since the rain has let up and the sun has warmed us up, I was able to run. My routine has been to go for a fast paced jog then come back, grab the dogs and walk down to the bottom of Reis (a hill). Once we get to the bottom we sprint the 2 blocks to the top and around the corner back to the house. The pictures show the obvious exhaustion of the dogs as they are running with a professional! (we actually had to slow down to a jog for the last little bit because poor emmy was falling behind).

Although I am sad that these three days off have quickley flown by I will still enjoy every last minute. Amberlee and I are looking forward to breakfast with Grandma in the morning! (well 11am) before we both head off to work. For anyone that lives down here, California Grill is an amazing place for breakfast...in Uptown Whittier.

Professional

That's right....its official...I have business cards! ha ha ha....who would have ever thought. Its been fun to have them at work because everytime I have an employee complaining to me I just whip out the card and tell them to call me.

Jacket

Here is my new Dub Jacket! I had to try it on at least once before packing it away for the summer. Actually its been very handy since my room seems to stay at least 10 degrees below the temp of the rest of the house....and as you may have heard it did rain yesterday....so its a darn good thing I had it ready.

Robot Fighting

Ever wonder what goes on in the resturant when it gets slow? Well I can't speak for any other resturants but here at Fridays, Buena Park we do a little thing we like to call "Robot Fighting" Its kinda hard to see because we are on the patio and its dark but you get the idea. In the video you will see Jesse and Joe duking it out.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=OEWgCZ9O8Co

Darn I just went back to watch it and you really can't see a thing! Ill have to try and get it again inside where its light.

Snowboard

So let me first start by saying that I just had an amazing breakfast: 2 egg rolls & milk...and for dessert: coffee and a frosted sugar cookie.

For about a year now I have been saving silver change in a big jar with no idea what I wanted to get with it. Then as plans for a move to Seattle began to develop and with Shaun White and Lindsay Jacobellis tearing up the slopes in Torino, I decided to go for the snowboard. Now I have only been a few times so I figured its a little early to go for the Burton gear. I just wanted something to learn on. So I went to Big 5 Sporting Goods and found everything I needed.

Heelside Snowboard: Reg. Price-$250 I paid: $99.95

Heelside Bindings: Reg. Price-$89.99 I paid: $29.97

Heelside Boots: Reg. Price-$89.99 I paid: $29.98

Kemper Pants: Reg. Price-$99.98 I paid $34.98

Stickit Gloves: Reg. Price $49.99 I paid $24.99

So the estimated Reg. Price total would be about 613.95 I paid: $236.94

I am just glad I got there in time as most stores I have been to down here have already sold all their winter things and are ready for spring! Boy I love California.