Ramblings of a Crazy Woman

So I went back to the courthouse on Monday. I was immediately called as an alternative juror but it soon turned into juror after everyone but me got excused. The jury selection process and I am talking about the part where you are already inside the courtroom is weird. The attorney's and judge ask a bunch of questions. FIrst you start off with these questions: Where do you live? What is your occupation? Your previous occupation? Are you married or living with other adults? Your spouse's or other adults occupation? Have you been on jury duty before? Have you been on a case and was it criminal or civil? Did your jury reach a verdict? Then the Judge asks random questions to what you can only assume pertains to your case. Then the attorney's question you based on your answers or dismisses you immediately based on one of your answers. One of my questions, "Have I ever had a bad encounter with police officers?" sparked some interest in the defense attorney. I t

Jury Duty has a bad stigma about it. Most people don't want anything to do with it because they see it as an inconvenience and want to get out of it the moment they see the letter in the mail. Some people don't answer the summons and throw it away while others answer it only to intentionally lie to attorney's to get off a case. Some people like it and think it's their duty and finally, other people are extremely nervous about it and wonder what the heck they just got themselves into. Having never been on Jury Duty before I felt the later. Totally nervous and wondering what I was in for. The day after I got home from my vacation in Florida I was on call for a week. In fact, as I sat in the Orlando airport on Sunday, Feb 1st, I called that 1-800 number to see if I needed to report the next day. I was relieved to hear a voice say " You are not required to show up. Please call again tomorrow." This happened for the next 4 days. I got all the way to

I am not sure if all of you know this this but this month I got a new job. It's a pretty good job if I say so myself. Not only do I get to sleep in each morning till 9AM but I get to take an hour and half lunch that doesn't involve being interrupted by a buzzing blackberry. I also get out of work early which allows me to enjoy some daylight hours. I have time to run errands that I normally don't have the time for during the weekdays. Traffic to and from my new job is fabulous. Not a lot of congestion. My new co-workers are really nice people and they have the most interesting stories to tell. I do have to go through security everyday because my new job is in a rough section of town but, I get to cut in front of people because of my job title so I never have to wait in line like the rest of the workers. The people in my building where I work are very interesting to observe. These people come from all walks of life. My job has very limited paperwork except

Valentine's Day is one of those holidays where you can be really happy or really sad or I guess really mortified at the cost of things. Well, other then being a child and liking it, I was mostly a single gal and hated it until about 6 year's ago when I meet my hubby. So I guess I have turned into one of those people who like it and believe in it. I hated it before because I wasn't really participating in it (and it was a reminder that I was without that special someone) and of course, if you don't participate, the holiday would seem like a really meaningless day. I don't really buy into the "It's stupid, because it costs a lot of money thing." Because A) you can celebrate it on another day or B.) You don't have to break the bank. It's like all the other holidays really. You decide how much you want to participate and how much you want to pay. I like this holiday now because I feel like I am participating in the spirit in which it wa

After spending 4 days on land the next phase of our Disney vacation took place by sea. Thursday morning we awoke bright and early and met the family at Cape May a character buffet breakfast at our resort. Pretty much the entire clan had been eating at buffets but this was the first one for the hub and I. Still not hungry we both had a few bites of things. But it did look like a perfectly cool buffet. The problem with the stomach flu is that you sometimes feel ok to eat and other times don't and then sometimes you can't eat a lot, only a few bites because your stomach shrank. This is probably the only time I went to DisneyWorld and actually lost weight on a trip. We may not have had food to entertain us but there were characters. The table met Minnie, Gooffie and Donald Duck. They signed Clayton's book which by now was full of signatures and I collected photos. After breakfast we had a little time to rest before we had to gather in a big lobby and be c

Our fourth and last day before setting sail on our Disney Cruise was spent taking it easy. We slept in a bit and then, since we had reservations at The Grand Floridian for Afternoon High Tea at 2pm, the hub and I decided to chill by the pool. The pool at the Beach Club Resort is pretty awesome. It has a sandy bottom and tons of slides and other fun things. We were still kind of feeling under the weather so basically we didn't go in any of the pools but rather passed out on chairs. We basically slept until it was time to go back to the hotel to get ready for tea. We were not feeling particularly good but made the effort to go because we love tea. Again, the hubby had to push me to get going. High Tea at the Grand Floridian was amazing and one of my favorite things about the trip and must to do again and again on future trips. With not much of an appetite, I forced myself to eat as much of the really yummy scones, beautiful strawberries and cream and tasty Lemon Pound Ca

We woke up on our third morning in Orlando feeling better. Our stomachs were still off-kilter but at least we felt good enough to get up and go exploring Epcot. I hoped we would be able to spend the whole day there as even though I have been to Disney a few times now, I feel my time at Epcot always gets shorted. We headed over to Epcot with an hour to spare before we were to meet up with the entire family for lunch at The Coral Reef. The park wasn't officially open yet so we spent our time taking pictures with various characters. We were lucky to run into several characters that were not surrounded by a bunch of people and we had fun collecting pictures. See, I don't collect autographs like the little kids but I do like to try and collect photos of the different characters. At 11:30AM it was time for lunch. We hadn't eaten at the Coral Reef before so I was excited but I was also leery. At least I felt hungry which was a good sign. The Coral Reef doesn't have a

So our second day in Orlando wasn't a pleasant one due to our Disney Ebola. We lingered in bed missing what was supposed to be a fabulous brunch at BOMA and finally met up with everyone at The Animal Kingdom park. We missed our little nephew's first visit with Mickey and Minnie which was sad but he didn't seem to mind. It was very cute when he said "Auntie & Uncle I meet Mickey." He was on the Dinsey high. I was glad Disney Ebola (a.k.a. the stomach flu) didn't seem to get him. After all the trip was "All About Clayton." We also found out that the hub's step-brother had contracted Disney Ebola too. Since he sat in the back of plane with us while his fiance slept (yes, before he starting barfing he managed to ask his girlfriend of two years to marry him - I so like her!) all signs of Disney Ebola seemed to pointed back to said 13-year-old barfing kid as the germ culprit who infected us. Thank you very much for the nasty nausau, yuck

I have to count my lucky stars for "the good" that has come our way of late. In a wierd way, I attribute this good with the minute I met my husband. It seems my life has certainly been more charmed since meeting him. In the past year, we have been lucky in travel with free airline tickets to Amsterdam and then a free trip to Walt Disney World and a Disney Cruise. Either, I am getting the hang of feng shui, having a good run with karma or I have actually married the real Prince Charming! One thing I do know is that I am blessed with an incredibly generous family. As previously mentioned in earlier blogs, my husband and I were recipients of a free trip from my mother-in-law, Faith (I call out the name because I am lucky to have two equally kind and generous mother-in-laws or rather, fairy god-mothers). For Christmas and also to celebrate our 3 year-old's first trip to Disney, she decided to take us kids to Disney World for a 4 days vacation at the parks and a 3 day v

Sorry it's been a while folks but I went on vacation (Jan 24-Feb 1st) and I have been trying to recover from Disney Ebola (I'll explain later). Not to mention, this week I am on call for jury duty and trying to get back into a very busy time at work! I will likely do a recap of the vacation but I am not sure when I will have a free moment. For now, here are some things I learned on my recent Disney vacation. #10. The STATE ROOMS on the Walt Disney Cruise ship WONDER are huge!!! They beat Carnival anyday. However, the pin pong ball in the ceiling had me going bonkers for a few hours. #9. The DISNEY DELUXE MEAL PLAN at Walt Disney World, is too much food for any human being to consume! I'd like to meet the person who can consume all that food with ease because they certainly have impressive eating skills. #8. SNACK CREDITS are awesome! Even when you have Disney Ebola and can't use them as they should be used. Not only are snacks awesome but if you can't use