Hi Friends! I had my fist day of Jury duty today, I got picked for a civil case in February but I have to report back on Friday to go back in the juror pool for potentially more cases. I am having some anxiety, I don’t mind being on a civil case but I have a really hard time listing to crime, I can’t even watch crime shows, my stomach is in knots about it. And to add insult to injury they will not let you knit in the court room or bring in a cup of coffee. On the plus side I did make a new friend today, a fellow knitter who works at a yarn shop I didn’t know about. I might check out their Wednesday night knitting club. See, you gotta stay optimistic and look for the silver lining. On to more pleasant things I made my dad the perfect Christmas gift this year, a scrapbook of scanned newspaper articles about his side of the family:
I was a bit overwhelmed when I started this project but I printed out pages as I scanned them so I had something to show for my work, also that way if I did not get everything done at least I had something done but I did manage to scan all of the important stuff. I scanned the clippings at 600dpi and printed them larger so they would be easy to read. I used the curves/levels tool in Paint Shop Pro to reduce the yellow and increase the contrast making them look newer. If you do not have Paint Shop or Photoshop try GIMP it is free and works really well. That’s it for me tonight. The jury selection really tired me out (probably the stressing that I would be put on some horrible criminal case was most of it) so I am going to relax with some tea and TV. Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!
The Frugal Crafter Blog 
Hey–do the jury duty for me, please. My son’s a cop and I will most likely never get to serve on one but would like to. YES look for the silver lining…can you have your cell phone and at least PIN??? LOL
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Lindsay, I had jury duty once got to be on the grand jury it wasn’t bad. I am having anxiety about flying out to Las Vegas on the 19th by myself and back on the 24th. My baby sister has been sick since October and having surgery. I am really worried about her. Maybe my nerves won’t get me before then. Have a good night and don’t worry to much. My husband always says don’ t worry about what you can’t control but I always do I can’t help it. Patricia
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Hi Lindsay,
I had to laugh so much when I read you aren’t allowed to knit in the court room!
I have to keep at least my hands moving too when I am concentrating and lots of people don’t understand that – they assume doing something else just HAS to distract me from what I am actually supposed to be busy with!
Too bad you can’t sketch while you are there, at least with a pencil on your pad of paper … what about doodling/zentangle?
For me, not knowing what’s going to happen next would be the worst part. Having to wait and see!
Good Luck!
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I’ve also had notification of jury duty and like you I am very anxious about it. My last jury duty resulted in me being sent home when I was picked for a child abuse case – I got to the jury room and promptly burst into floods of tears! I was dismissed but told I could be called again sooner than usual and here we are – sooner than usual! Why is it I never ever win a lucky dip prize or the lottery but I always get picked for jury duty!! Good luck to you.
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They say it is random but this is my 3rd time being called, I guess they get your name from voter records and DMV (that is what you get for always voting and renewing you license LOL) as for scumbags that hurt children or animals they are guilty until proven innocent in my book…yeah, I am not unbiased there. I’m glad they let you go, I could not handle that either. Take care and hurrah for boring civil cases (I’ll pick that any day!)
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I think it would be cool to take pics of your dad’s hardware store and go through old old clippings of tools they used in the old days versus today’s tools, I think he would really enjoy that too.
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what a nice present 🙂 And you are lucky to have such a memorabilia of generations!
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Lindsey, what a wonderful gift you’ve given to your dad and sister! I’ve noticed the older our family gets, the harder it is to BUY something for them. We/they have everything we/they need and get what we want as the year goes by. Why do we bother with the commercial part of Christmas?!
Again, kudos on making a sentimental present! I know it will be treasured!
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You should be given an opportunity to let the judge know about your anxiety when you are interviewed for a criminal case. I don’t think the attorneys would want you on the jury in this case. You could also ask the jury supervisor about filing a doctor’s order that you be excused from jury duty, and then ask your doctor to write something–just don’t let the doctor talk you into a prescription. You don’t need/want to be on medication.
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Oh goodness, I wasn’t aware they changed that knitting criteria. I recall years ago I was able to knit in the jury room. My sympathies, believe me. No coffee? Hey, that’s juror abuse! Ha! Great video, thanks as always, for your wonderful talent, sharing and video techniques. I love your site.
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A great idea for a present . I have a few items I could do that with.
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Lindsey, I’m a legal assistant and I’ll tell you that most civil cases involve very boring issues! Nothing to worry about! Usually, the most interesting issues are the people you’ll meet in the jury pool!
Now, the gift you’ve made for your Dad is something that is priceless!
Thanks for sharing your talents with all of us but mostly to those of us who aren’t so talented!!!
Della
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thank you della:)
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Wow, what an awesome gift you made for your Dad, a beautiful treasure for future generations too. ~Diane
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Thanks Diane! I hope you didn’t mind that I shared that beautiful card you made me in my January update video, it was so stunning! Thanks you so much for that:)
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Lindsey, I know this is long, but I really feel for your dread of doing jury duty. Between the four adults in my family we get called for jury duty all the time and only one of us ever got a real crime. Most of it is silly stuff like traffic cases or selling drugs, and civil trials. If you get as far as “voir dire” (“in law, the act or process of questioning prospective jurors to determine whether they are qualified and suitable for service on a jury”) you should be able to ask to talk to the judge privately and tell him/her (and the attorneys) that you just get ill at the thought of listening to crime details. They always ask the same question “will it interfere with your ability to listen objectively to the evidence and make an objective decision about guilt or innocence?” and if it will, you say “yes”. Like “Marksgran” said, you might get called again sooner than if you served but at least you won’t have to be stressed.
And even if you get on the jury, cases get called off all the time. The defendant can decide to plead for a lesser charge right up until the case goes to the jury. Once when I served a witness brought up a past crime the defendant was guilty of and all the lawyers jumped up and the judge told us to leave the room and she called a mistrial–end of that.
The lawyers really don’t want someone on the jury who deep in their heart just doesn’t want to be there because it can cause the verdict to be disqualified if there is an appeal. One of my friends had trouble with her employer letting her off for jury duty and the employer was going to make her take vacation days. The defense attorney found out about it after the trial and based his appeal on it–she was so embarrassed that the guy could be let off because she complained about her boss.
The only hard part for me, besides sitting around for hours waiting for something to happen, is not talking about the case–even when you go to lunch with the other jurors. Ack! Keeping my mouth shut is really hard!!!
Pack your purse with things to take your mind off the case. Take a notebook and pencil with you and plan the videos you want to do for the next few months, and your Kindle for reading, to keep you busy while you are in the jury room waiting for the lawyers and judge to do their thing. You can knit in the jury room can’t you? Take a round loom and make a hat–everyone will want to know what you are doing. I always have something in my big purse like my Kindle or Tablet and I think they always let us keep our purses with us. And they always take long lunches, so you may need something to take up the time there.
They give you a tablet and pencil to make notes about the case but sometimes you have to leave it on your jury seat when you go to the jury room for breaks. Here they won’t let anyone (except the lawyers) have a cell phone–you have to keep that in your car or they confiscate it for the duration of the trial. (They search your bag when you enter the floor where the court rooms are, and you have to go through a metal detector.)
So relax and go with the flow. The jury has the easiest job in the room–just listening to evidence and deciding if it is accurate or not and if it shows someone broke the law. The judge will give you instructions of what the law is and you decide if the evidence meets the standards for guilty or not guilty. It is nothing like the TV shows–no drama. And everyone in the room wants you (the jury member) happy. One judge even brought us a pie he had made himself. The lawyers even treat you nice because they need you on their side. Now being a witness, that’s a whole ‘nother story.
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I don’t mind serving, I was picked for a civil case but we all have to return and potentially be used on a criminal case too, I will do the civil case with no trouble but I do not think I can be objective listing to real crime, my stomach is in knots. I think most people who are arrested are guilty and I would see them as guilty until they proved to me that they are not, too many scumbags walk the streets because they got off on a technicality I think. I think I will talk with the jury supervisor, hopefully she will understand especially since I am already on a case. i just hope they won’t penalize me by making me come in again when I am already doing a trial. there were seriously 100 other people there, it is not fair to make people do 2 cases when they have so many to pick from.
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You are not actually deciding wether the person is guilty or innocent, but wether there is proof beyond a reasonable doubt!!? The judge who spoke to me thanked all of us for being there and told us we were performing the highest civil duty in the whole country except for being in the armed services!!!! If it was not for our court system we would be in real dire straits! Thank you for your service!!!!!
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so who had saved all the newspaper articles? i’m not sure my family ever GOT in the paper – except maybe when i won the spelling bee! i’d love to do that but wouldn’t know where to collect the “stuff”.
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my dad’s grandmother. Most of out accolades were do to the people in my family living to be very old and married for a very long time:) That was big news back then LOL! Some snippits were fun to read, it was like the “facebook” of their generation:)
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What a lovely gift! Does your father’s family come from ME? I have found that Maine newspapers, courts, church yearbooks, etc are great resources for genealogy research (my husband). It’s a gift to your Dad, but it’s a great gift to your kids someday also! Think of the jury duty as an opportunity to learn about human nature from a different point of view. Good luck!
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yes, for the past couple hundred years:) You are “from away” unless you have 4 generations here at least LOL! I think they were in China Maine before it became China:)
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If you can’t listen to crime cases, by all means let them know that before hand so they don’t pick you.
Your album for you dad is priceless! What a thoughtful gift. I have a few newspaper articles about my family I should do that for. What about magazine articles? My oldest daughter was just voted as one of the top “Life Changing Makers” in the Canadian Living Magazine. I did photocopy the article about her but wondering if I should do something to the original page to protect it?
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This sounds silly but laminating works really well because it seals out the air which is what disintergrates it over time. Make high quality scans then laminate it:) Congrats to her, you must be so proud!
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I hope yours turns out like mine did. By the time the date rolled around for me to be in court and when I got to the courthouse there were enough of us there so they went by the alphabet and sent those way down on home. Good luck I hipe it works the same for you.
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That seems like a lot of cases for one citizen. Usually when you get on one jury, that’s it for a year. If it’s really causing you stress, don’t be shy about speaking up. Also, if you’ve had any similar experience, they will often excuse you. Good luck
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My Goodness, what a total treasure!
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