Sorry I disapppeared again

While I was not blogging, things were happening.  For instance, see if you can spot our Prius in this picture!

We had a wee bit of a blizzard out here in Boston and because of it schools were closed for both Friday and the following Monday, with a nice little 2 hour delay on Tuesday.  There was a driving ban in our state and everything, meaning that for almost 2 days if you were not a plow or necessary vehicle and you were caught driving, there was a huge fine and even some jail time to look forward to!

Not that we could go anywhere anyway because, as it turns out, there was too much snow in our very long driveway for a plow truck so our landlord had to send two guys with snow blowers.  It was a help but I still spent about 3 hours shoveling to get the sidewalks exposed and to unearth our cars. 

I tell you, that much time is a little too much "togetherness" for our family too.  We were lucky to have only lost power for a matter of hours (my cousin lost it for 3 days), but we were all stir crazy and at each others throats in record time.  The kids fought about everything, and not just the important stuff, like what color cup they got served their milk in.

In the midst of it, I also had jury duty which was not cancelled despite 99% of schools being closed in the surrounding towns.  Plus, we had to be there at 8am and, since the highways were still being worked on, I gave myself a lot of extra time to get there, leaving the house before anyone was awake and arriving before the court doors were even unlocked.

Having never served on a jury, and my only other experience being sitting in a room in Oakland, CA for an hour before being told to go home, I had no idea what to expect.  Unfortunately, that day everyone was being considered for a murder trial jury.  I had no prior knowledge of the case, which would have made me an ideal juror, but it was going to be a month long trial so I was relieved to be excused after 6 hours of waiting around waiting for the one on one interview with the judge and lawyers.

When I got home I "Googled the shit" out of the case and am so relieved to have been excused.  The accused was 18 when he allegedly murdered his 18 year old ex-girlfriend.  According to the articles, there was a ton of incriminating evidence and it isn't so much a trial of his guilt but whether he might have been insane at the time.

It all made me so sad.  You see when the judge introduced the case in the morning, he had all the lawyers introduce themselves and even the defendant.  I thought at the time that he looked young and as he rose and faced this room of 100+ strangers, he started to cry.  I didn't know anything of the case at the time, only that this young man was being accused of murder and his crying made my heart hurt.

I don't know how it is going to be to teach our kids that relationships will come and go and that it is ok because they all teach us what we do and don't want in a life partner so when we finally meet that truly special person we will know.  That having someone break up with you is not the worst thing that can happen.  That people can go their separate ways and be happy again.

You can bet I am going to follow this trial closely with my friend, Mr Google.

In other news, the other reason I have been absent is I discovered a new favorite show on streaming Netflix.  Lost Girl is a Canadian show that got picked up in the US by Scyfy network.  It is a cross between Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Skinemax but it is awesome and I have been devouring episodes like candy. 

I told my work friend, who shares similar tastes with me, and I got some angry texts from her over the weekend.  It appears I ruined her attempts to study for her night school class because she can't stop watching the show. 

Sometimes it is nice to be a bad influence.

Now if you excuse me, I have to go watch 3-4 episodes before I go to bed.

 

Comments

[Kathy]

Ooooh I will have to check out that show. And BTW our street looked just like yours last week...thankfully a lot of the snow has now been washed away by rain...but it is dismal and grey out there. Glad to see you back though!

[Anne]

Very sad about that trial, glad you were excused.

Steve and I watch Lost Girl, too, and I have often rolled my eyes at the total teenage boy wet dream aspect to it. "Wait a minutes, she has to have sex to live?" Still watch it, though.

[Chickenpig]

I am glad you got excused. That kind of thing would mess with your head. It is important that we all do are duty (yadda yadda yadda) but I know that your mind would just keep working at this and get no rest. (if I were you I wouldn't goo.gle the case too much either, for your sake).

We had the same amount of time off from school, exactly, right down to the 2 hr delay. We had about 30 inches here. In spite of rain and spring like temps, we've still got about 4" in the backyard. We may get more at the end of this week. joy. We just had Feb vacation, too, which just added insult to injury. I love my kids, but if I had to spend one more day with them all closed up in the house I was going to end up rocking in the corner with a bottle of wine! (the temps have been wicked cold here, dangerously cold, so no playing outside). I'm checking out Lost Girl right now. I'm going to get me a basket of laundry and fold the heck out of it while I do! Wooopee!