Jury Duty

For weeks I had been tortured by the vision of UGH -- Jury Duty. since I'd never been called for it before, it was extra torturous as I did not know what to expect.

As per my persona, I arrived at the downtown L.A. traffic court almost 40 minutes early. After parking and walking the plank, I noted the longest line I'd ever seen and shuddered that I had to stand in it. Fortunately, I found out it was for the real perps...people there for traffic court, etc. The line for jurors was a mere little sign that read: jurors -- and I was first.

After a few moments of standing, I was pretty much directing traffic for people figuring out what to do and where to go. I finally walked away and sat. A few other jurors were standing around at that point and girl sat next to me. We started giggling and chatting about our dread of "duty." Jennifer was easy enough for me to remember as she was cute as a button and reminded me of a 19 year old version of Jinnfer Goodwin (the youngest wife from "Big Love").

Things were brightening up already. After getting into the room, we laughed like school girls at the boring speeches about why were there and practically passed notes to keep things entertaining. It was around that time we heard another person laughing loudly.

Maya was sitting a few seats away and as she applied make-up, she giggled loudly too as we were trying to make the best of an otherwise buzzkill situation. She also noted that the man she originally sat next to was reading a magazine and mutter, "f***sh**f***sh***" to himself over and over and figured sitting by him was NOT a good idea.

The three of us spent the morning chick chatting -- where we grew up, if we were dating people, what they were like and our favorite subject -- our animals. We all spoke of our animals as if we were sharing the logic of the Universe. Jennifer has a little old dog whose name escapes me right now and Maya, two cats and a dog named Molly, who ironically had a bad haircut recently just like my Kitty.

As the late morning wore on, Maya suggested we all go to lunch and she would take us on a tour of the area since she'd grown up around there and still lives there. In agreement, we took off at 11:30 for the first leg of our lunch tour.

Upon arriving to Maya adorable little blue car, I noted her license plate (a take on a Star Wars character that I won't mention to protect her identity), but it was so fitting as she said, "____ because all of the good jedi's wore blue."

Our first stop was what Maya considers the best Mexican food in Los Angeles. Chicken Itza is a food counter located within the beautiful Mercado la Paloma, a Latino oriented market (subsidized by private donations and for profit enterprises) with different shops and restaurants. Chicken Itza specializes in the cuisine of the Yucatan and dayam was the food amazing! Over our delicious mogging food, we continued chatting and were figuring out our next leg of the tour.

We left and then arrived at Maya's house to meet her darling dog, Molly, who was waiting patiently at the gate for us. We played with her for a while, met the turtles and the cats and even granny who lives with Maya.

We then went to Olevera street and the three of us ran around like chickens with our heads cut off because not only was there a ton of people watching, but tons of markets, shopping and more beautiful restaurants. We wandered around for yet another fun filled time when suddenly we all realized that we were actually not out having fun, but were at effing jury duty.

We arrived back at the chambers at oops, 2:30. Thankfully our names had not been called. it was as quiet as a morgue until we arrived and chirped about our fun afternoon.

Within the next 45 minutes, both Jennifer and Maya got called in for jury duty and have to return Monday. After they were done, they came back and we all hugged goodbye like old friends. Within the hour I was sent home.

Not bad for my first time at jury duty!


A MUST try!!

Chicken Itza
3655 South Grand Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90007
(213) 741-1075
www.chickenitzrestaurant.com