Tag: personal

So, I reported for jury duty today, and realized that I was in the pool for a 5-month grand jury murder case.  O.O

And seriously, I think that jury duty is really important, and have served many times and always been proud and happy to do it.  And it is the one civic duty we have (other than voting) since we don’t have a draft.  It is essential to our justice system to have juries of peers.  The judge in the case had served as a magistrate in Johannesburg, SA, in Europe, and now was a naturalized citizen and US judge.  He said that for all it’s faults, our justice system was still the best in the world, because of the jury trial.  Because he, as the judge, did not hold all the power.  He made an excellent case for the importance of service, likened serving on this jury to being drafted (and it’s true that some deployments are shorter, though they don’t get Friday’s off and the shooting part isn’t in the past). I liked him.  I wanted to serve, despite the inconvenience.  If this were a 2-3 week case I would have tried to get on it, as I think it’s important to have scientists on juries that assess forensic evidence.  My employer would actually pay for my time so I don’t even have a financial hardship.  But jfc 5 MONTHS?!?  Even if my pay didn’t suffer directly, my projects and future viability at work might. 

I claimed and was granted a childcare hardship, which is true but minor compared to some of the hardships in that room.  Luckily they had about 400 of us in that room for a jury of 12+2.  I assume that they felt they had enough people or they would have told me to hire a sitter and fill out the questionnaire.

It was surprisingly stressful, deciding to take the hardship excuse.  I truly believe it’s vital for everyone to serve.  But who can take a 5-month hiatus from their responsibilities? 

Grandpa is fine

Those of you who were around on Tuesday when I fled the office because my grandfather went to the hospital, and then noticed I was gone much of the week, please know that he’s okay.  They still aren’t sure what the chest pain was about, but it was not a heart attack, and he doesn’t have pneumonia, and he even passed his stress test with flying colors for a 94yo.  He came over last night for our usual pizza and movie with his great granddaughters (and GBP and me).  And we finished the Indiana Jones series.  So now we need to find a new series…he’s caught up on Harry Potter, Marvel, except the more vulgar ones), We might start on LotR, though I’m not sure he has the stamina to watch an entire 3 hour film in one sitting.

We joke that we’re taking care of his pop culture quotient.  He’s always been a big reader, but mostly histories etc.  Now he’s read the entire Harry Potter series, which thrills all his grandkids and great grandkids. 

Anyway, it was a scary week as they ran test after test and nothing showed up as the culprit, but we’ll take what we can get.  Thanks again for all your well wishes and support.

On my way home early…

ato-the-bean:

…because my grandfather has been admitted into the ER with chest pains.

Fingers crossed that it’s not another heart attack. We need more time with him.

Thanks to everyone who sent hugs and well wishes.  He is staying overnight in the hospital, but we hope he will be released tomorrow.  The tests so far indicate no heart attack and no pneumonia, but that means we don’t actually know what is causing the pain, so they are doing some more tests.

I’ll probably be in and out the next few days as we (I hope) get him settled at home again. 

Again, thanks friends… I saw your messages come in on my phone and they really did help. ( @psychoticpterodactyl16, @seepunkrun, @emilociraptor, @hopeforyouyet, @silfreya, @plaid-queen, @entrenous88, @thatmysticbafflingwonder, @rycolfan)

really, all heterosexuals are boring? I’m sorry thats just bullshit, I can name about a thousand interesting straight people right off the top of my head for example sally ride the FIRST WOMAN IN SPACE are you saying she’s not interesting?

orchardbait:

this is so wild, Sally Ride was literally a lesbian,, but nice try bud

I can think of a lot of interesting straight people, but Sally, WHO ROCKS, is not among them, though she was married to a male astronaut for a while, so might have identified as bi. When Miss10 studied her last year, we got to have really great conversations not only about girls rocking it in sciences, but how sad it was that Sally felt she had to hide her love, and how we hoped the world was changing enough that the next generation of Sally Rides could be out. Miss10 wants to attend Sally Ride’s space camp next summer, and I want to figure out how to do it. Not our town, unfortunately.

goytears:

comradegil:

thekatierodriguez:

A relationship with no gender roles. We both hustle, we both cook, we both clean, we both pay, we both spoil each other.

literally gay ppl been doing this for years lol being straight sounds exhausting 

okay true but making fun of a woman for wanting less demanding and exhausting relationships for herself where she doesn’t have to do all the domestic, emotional, and sexual labor is maybe not the best way to point this out….

I’m het and this is my marriage too. With the right partner, equality isn’t an issue. My commute is longer, so he shops and cooks. I clean up. His job is less flexible, so when the kids need things during the day, it’s on me. Not because I’m a woman, but because I don’t have 150 students waiting on me and can dash out of a meeting with a few apologies and it’s okay.

But you’ve got to negotiate what you need. That’s true in everything, but especially a marriage where it’s easy to fall into habit and not check back in that the division of labor works.