catch a falling star

and put it in your pocket, save it for a rainy day

that's an old song by the awesome crooner Perry Como and it saved my life yesterday...day 3 of Voir Dire... I was held hostage by Judge Brian Hill and the Santa Barbara Superior court...held in a room without windows....held with about 50 of other hostages sitting through the most boring process ever invented by the white man....voir dire.. voir fucking dire..the judge explained to us over and over and over what the case is....ok I got it... a murder case!!

we got a morning break but couldn't leave the building for security reasons and at the exit was an armed guard..I tried to leave but he wouldn't let me...I glanced over at the long line in front of the rest rooms and shouted at the guard.."what am I supposed to do, piss on the floor??"

I walked away, shaking with anger and fearful that my bladder would burst....I sat down in the waiting room and the tune came into my head...catch a falling star and put it in your pocket.....I sang it silently to myself and started to calm down and then the line in front of the head disappeared!! I went in and took a really long piss... I could easily have filled the Dolphin Fountain at Stearn's Wharf...

so we all go back into the hostage room and sit down..this time they will ask us questions...they picked 12 names by random and I was not called goddammit!! so the 12 sit down in the jury box and answer five stock questions like name, marital status, ever sit on a jury etc..then Judge Hill asks questions...trying to detemine if any bias exists in the prospective jurors...he dismisses a few lucky folks but then the questions continue...catch a falling star and put it in your pocket...

as I listened in my mind to Perry Como, it was time for a lunch break...1.5 hours so I go back home to Carp and start some laundry..then I return to the court house..

it's 1:45pm and I'm in the hostage room only this time there'a about 120 folks there..some had to sit on the floor...Judge Hill looked around the room and seemed clueless as to our discomfort...it was about 75 degrees inside, the AC didn't work right...then Judge Hill repeats everything he told us in the morning for the benefit of the newcomers!! catch a falling star and put it in your pocket....then finally Hill sees there's too many people in the room and sends 30 folks home to return Thursday...good because I was about to call the Fire Marshall for a fire code violation at Superior Court....

ok so we're back to the questioning and after Hill is done the lawyers do the same thing!! axe the same type questions...long boring questions....repetitive questions..do you believe in due process? do you hate gangs? do you think all gang members are violent?

what the lawyers didn't ask is do we believe in the right to a speedy trial because it appears that they do not...oh I certainly do and I'll ask them about it on Wednesday when I return....

catch a falling star and put it in your pocket, save it for a rainy day....