Les Singes: The Life of Monkey Boy

We Have Our Jury

My eleven days of jury duty have been fulfilled. I did my civic duty and I couldn't be more happy to take part in a very important process. I'd love to share my experience and as much of the trial as I can recall, but we weren't allowed to take any notes from the trial with us.

I reported to jury duty on Wednesday January 6th. I got pre-selected for a jury, but I immediately knew specific details about the alleged crime. I asked to be removed from the trial since the case was conservatively expected to take two months. My company covers 15 days of jury duty, but not 40. The case was a murder trial for a restaurant shooting which happened in an adjacent neighborhood.

Thursday morning I filled out a questionnaire after getting assigned to a different criminal trial at the end of Wednesday. The questions were detailed and explicit. The questions asked if you'd be able to view sexually explicit videos of minors. I thought about the question for a bit and answered yes. The trial was expected to last two weeks, so I had the green light. That's a wrap for Thursday, January 7th.

Roughly 60 potential jurors funnel into the judge's courtroom Monday morning to begin the drawn out voir dire process. If you're not familiar with voir dire, it's when the prosecutor and defense attorney(s) ask questions of the jurors in attempt to reveal prejudices that may factor in the trial. It's a fascinating process in action. I will juror #89.

It's during this voir dire process where many potential jurors embellish to get out of serving jury duty. Due to the nature of the trial, we were asked if we had biases towards protecting kids. If a kid has a revelation that was sexual in nature, will we always believe what they say to be the truth? There was a great deal of discussion and about 10-15 jurors were dismissed by the judge based on the jurors admitted biases.

Other questions followed and somehow I was still there. I didn't believe I'd get seated in the jury box, but it happened. Now I was juror #6. The attorneys for both sides have 8 jurors they can remove for whatever reason. I got in the box with a few removals left. I was nervous as hell and amazingly nobody objected to my presence jury so I stayed.

I got on the jury and the following morning (Tuesday January 12th) we'd hear opening statements in the State of Washington vs. Russell Doe*. .... to be continued...

*named changed to protect the presumed innocent

Out of Office: Jury Duty

There are times when I don't feel I have much to share on this blog. Usually it's because I lead a boring life now that I'm a parent whose triathlon pursuits have passed me by.

For the next two weeks I will be a juror in a criminal trial. As a juror, the judge gave us instructions to avoid media and to not conduct "individual research". Of course this pertains to the trial at hand, but it's a good reason to avoid newspapers, websites, radio, etc.

You can bet I will have plenty of content because my first three days in court have been very eye-opening.

Favorite court/juror observations: 

Dude using BlackBerry during hearings, same guy's cellphone going off twice in courtroom during voir dire, sleeping on the floor in the juror waiting area, plenty of people making completely new friends based on jury duty.  It should be an educational two weeks.  More to come my good friends.  

Here, There, and Everywhere

Nothing says Happy New Year like civic duty, errr, I mean jury duty. Wednesday morning I'm supposed to show my face downtown to participate in the process. Whether or not I will get picked to be part of an actual jury is another story.

Maybe they will ask if I have a blog and I can say "hells yeah" and I will get dismissed. The truth is I'm mixed on this jury duty session. I'd love to be part of the process and see how things function when you're a juror. However this week we have a work offsite and this jury duty appointment is right in the thick of the action.

I've been part of other courtroom drama, but never in a jury. I've been a witness twice with mixed results. I think it would be great to be on a jury, but being away from work at the beginning of the year could be bad timing. Is there ever good timing for jury duty though? The only thing I know to expect is waiting. Even the county mail disclaimer says to expect to have a bunch of free time on our hands. I'm curious if they will make me ditch my BlackBerry or not. Maybe it will get me disqualified, who knows. If you don't hear from me for awhile, I got chosen to participate.
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2010 is here and I'm very excited. There's a chance, come August of this year, I may sign myself up for another Ironman event. I've got 8 months to think about it and to get my ass back in shape. Honestly, this one is going to be tougher to train for than the one I did in 2006. I was in awesome shape back in August of 2005 when I decided to take the plunge. I'm nowhere near where how I felt in January of 2005 in terms of physical conditioning and I'm a parent. I have the distinct advantage of knowing I can do it and my training partner has returned from his two year stint in the Dominican Republic. I'm still not sure if it will happen or not, but I could use some motivation these days and perhaps blogging about it will get me back on track. You're right, I've this approach 5-6 other times on this blog to no avail. It can't hurt to try once more.

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I'd like to make 2010 the year I accomplish bold things to make significant changes in my life. Ideally the year will be about getting out of my comfort zone and trying new things. I largely made safe decisions for the past decade and I'd like to throw much of that caution to the wind. Be bold, go places, do new things, rekindle lost passions, etc. I like to imagine there being a keg of potential waiting to be tapped. In 1998, I coined the motivational message "tap the keg" to turn things around in my life and it worked well. Go two thousand ten!

Riding the Light Rail with Baba

Here she is, Miss Bota. That's Albanian for Miss World or so I've been told by one of her daycare teachers. I just have to say the past few weeks have been nothing short of magical watching her discover the magic that is the holiday season. I'm not going to lie, I will be sad when the lights are removed from houses, when the inflatable Scooby Doo disappears, and when there are no more holidays songs blaring in retail stores. I will have fond memories of Christmas 2009.

Love is All You Need

Please take time to read the post below regarding a friend's partner and his uncertain future. Thanks!

My name is brandy. And I have a blog.

And a plea.

I use my blog to showcase the crazy I meet everyday, share the stories of the kids I teach and document my love for tequila, dairy products and the abdominal muscles of Ryan Reynolds. Rarely do I talk about personal issues on my blog- as personal as the dude that I adore (who I actually met through my blog- single ladies, let that be a very good reason to blog, the possibility of meeting someone as wonderful as my man), but I need your help. And it involves my dude.

He’s a guy who made math comics for my class, so they would love learning about addition. He’s the kinda guy who sends my friends gift cards when they are having hard times, who remembers every story I ever told him, who was the first person I celebrated with when I got a teaching job. He’s the guy who sent flowers to me at school- dozens of my favourite pink roses just because he loves me. He’s a guy who has spent a year patiently explaining (and re-explaining) everything there is to know about football during the important games when silence is preferred. He’s made me word puzzles and comics and stayed up late playing Scrabble with me (even though I beat him almost every time). He’s listened to me cry about school and family and jobs. He is everything I never knew I needed and everything I always knew I wanted.

The holidays have hit us hard. He’s recently been told he may have something called multiple myeloma- an incurable cancer, that gives a person an average of five years of continued life. Though this news has came as a shock, he continues to be exactly who has always been- spending his time worrying about me, rather than worrying about himself. He’s the most selfless individual I know- (he stayed late on Christmas Eve to work, so his co-workers could leave early) and a post like this would never be something that he would promote or encourage but when I’m overwhelmed and feeling helpless, the blogging community has always given me tremendous support and comfort, two things I desperately need at this time.

As I write this, the future is uncertain and we aren’t sure what’s happening. He’ll need to see an oncologist soon, to verify what’s going on in his body. My hope is that everyone who reads this think positive thoughts and if you are a person who prays, could you add him to your list? (You can refer to him as ‘brandy’s hot awesome dude’). If you don’t pray, please keep him in your heart.This cancer is only a possibility and I believe that the prayers and positive thoughts of people can make sure it never becomes a reality.

I want to give a big thank you to the blog owner who scraped their original blog plans and graciously put this up. My goal is to get as many people as possible to see and read this post. If you are reading this and want to help, copy and paste my plea into your blog or send a link through twitter, so more people can keep him in their thoughts. I would be so very grateful (even more grateful than I am to my friend who first showed me the picture of Ryan Reynolds on the cover of Entertainment Weekly. If you haven’t seen it, google it. You. Are. Welcome).

I realize this all sounds dramatic, a Lifetime movie in the making- but this is life. Right now. And I’m throwing away any hint of ego and am humbly asking for you to pray or think kind thoughts. If you are able to pass this on, thank you and if you know anything regarding MM- please email me (my email is on my blog). This isn’t a call for sympathy or a plea for pity. It’s just one girl hoping you can think positive thoughts for the person she adores. If my current heartache provides you with anything, let it be with the reminder that life is short, love is unbending and no one knows what could happen next. Maybe it is silly, but I really do believe that positive thoughts can make a huge difference. Thank you for reading this and if you haven’t already? Please tell someone you love them today.

I did.

Ballet World

When I was much younger I'd remember certain things about people. For example, in high school I'd commit to memory which people smoke and what cars they drive. Mind you, that's not all I tracked about each person, but I put a great deal of mental effort into memorizing such banal details about classmates.

Some 18 years later, I find myself keeping similar mental notes about co-workers. Why do I waste the energy? I have no clue. Here are the details I track closely.

• Do they wash their hands after touching themselves in the bathroom?
• Do they talk on their cell phone in the bathroom?
• Do they giggle uncontrollably when cutting their fingernails?
• Do they use a new paper cup on each visit to the kitchen?
• Do they hold doors open for others?
• BlackBerry, iPhone, something else, or no phone?
• Shoes
• Can you be bothered to wipe off the water around the kitchen sink?

Most of these probably make sense. I need to know who has proper hygiene in case I'm stuck in a three hour meeting with them. I also like to keep mental tabs on the lazy folks who can't be hassled to clean a coffee mug at the beginning of each day.

I only care about shoes because I need to be able to match a criminal to the scene ex post facto. I rarely have to use this tactic, but I'm definitely guilty of wandering around the office seeking out a rare shoe design.

Do you keep tabs on trivial things like this? If so, please share since that's what blogging is all about. A little give and take is good for the soul.

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Saturday afternoon we'll take our daughter to the Nutcracker. It should be very fun for many reasons. I'm hopeful she'll be so intrigued we, meaning me, won't have to hang out in the hallway and watch the ballet. Baby Singe thought we were attending the ballet today and was rather disappointed when she learned it was tomorrow. By wearing a dress and her ballet shoes, I think she assumed we were off to the ballet. Patience darling, patience.

State of the Blog

A couple years ago I received a cool gift. A bunch of people I met online, known as bloggers, banded together to throw me a virtual baby shower. It was a remarkable thing I must admit. I was overwhelmed by the generosity of people I had never technically met.

Anyways, it was well coordinated and culminated in an extra special gift, a Nintendo Wii sent from Canada. During our most recent "mancation", it's a fair to say we played too much Wii. One of my friends asked how I got the Wii. One of my other friends quickly chimed in "Bloggers!".

I spent a couple minutes explaining how this came to fruition and it brought me a great deal of pride. Blogging isn't exactly what it used to be, but it still remains my preferred way to eavesdrop. Sure there are other mediums available now, but those don't share the same advantages blogging does. I really dig the dialogue found on blogs. Sadly my "job" (work and life) has become much busier so I don't have nearly as much time to blog as previously.

I'm not dissing Facebook because I'm on it everyday. However, I just can't learn as much about a person via their profile like I could if I read a blog a Friend authored. There's definitely something to be said for delving into someone's mind via a blog. It's what attracted me to blogging initially and it's what keeps me blogging five years later. I'm not nearly as prolific as I was before Baby Singe arrived on the scene, but blogging still exists.

I'm not entirely sure where I'm going with this post. Maybe I wanted to brag that I have great friends, both in the flesh and those met via blogs. Maybe I wanted to share how incredibly awesome the Wii still is two years later. Perhaps I hope posting twice in a week will get me writing blog entries more often. Afterall the reason I started blogging in 2004 was to improve my writing skills.

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Appendectomy update: Mrs. Lessinges is scheduled to see the doctor tomorrow as a follow-up to her surgery. As of now there haven't been any complications and she's essentially back to full strength. Thank you to everyone for your thoughts and encouragement.

Time Changes Nothing

The weather outside was delightful, the discussion inside wonderful.

I hung with my friends for the weekend in Bend, Oregon. It has been fascinating to learn what our friend Tod did during his two years in the Dominican Republic serving as a Peace Corps volunteer. Whether it was bolstering hurricane weakened aqueducts, youth AIDS awareness, building wood stoves in the mountains, or his work with the local youth groups. It has been fun learning about culture and life the Dominican Republic, more commonly known as "The DR".

We booked our second mancation of the year for Central Oregon so we could catch up with our friend. The drive to Bend, Oregon from Seattle takes about 6-7 hours through scenic areas of Oregon. Seeing Mt. Hood with the full moon shining on its glaciers is awe inspiring. It was one of those amazing late night drives I will always remember.

I'll cherish this specific drive to Bend not only for its scenic goodness. The marvelous HD radio in the Subaru never got used, Tod and I had much catching up to do. It was fantastic and something I've missed amongst friends in the last two years. As a parent it's rare where/when I have a deep uninterrupted serious talk these days.

With a yellow line to my left and a white one to the car's right, I listened to how his life had unfolded in The DR. I discussed the joys (and heartaches) of parenthood while hardly noticing vast amounts of miles ticking away. We discussed relationships, friendships, triathlons, parents, and everything in between.

To me, this is what friendship looks like in the dictionary. The talk we shared reminded me of a car ride I took with Mrs. Lessinges in 1998 when we drove together from Chicago to Seattle. A ride so pleasant the radio wasn't needed as a social crutch. You just go from one topic to the next until you finally arrive at your destination, puzzled how you got there as fast as you did.

This my friends is what defines friendship. You can pick up where you left off as if nothing has been lost. Two years away from home, aw.... no big deal.

The Appendectomy

Another month, another hospital visit. Today my wife is getting her appendix removed. It is stirring up sorts of emotions inside me. I'm very proud of my brave wife as I know how much I personally would be freaked out.

She was a bit nervous as we had the anesthesiologist explain details prior to her surgery. I'm currently hanging in the hospital waiting room trying to relax.

Going under anesthesia is never easy. I realized I've been fortunate enough in my life to avoid ever going under. I also realize how extremely lucky I've been with my health. I try hard to take care of myself, but sometimes things do happen. No matter how well you take care of yourself, things can happen.

Now I've seen two other patients finish before my wife and it makes my mind go crazy. I know she is fine though as it's just an appendix. I will be happy to leave the hospital and not hear another pager beep and vibrate uncontrollably. I love you Mrs. Lessinges.

Bumping fists is for the emotionally weak

I reflect often. If you ask Mrs. Lessinges, she'll tell you I love the expression "guess what we were doing two months ago?" more than life itself.

2 years ago = November 2007 - my Best Man Tod is settling into his Peace Corps assignment. He will spend the next two years helping youth in The Dominican Republic make themselves healthier. Believe it or not, he returns to Seattle this Friday evening and I couldn't be happier.

3 years ago = November 2006 - miraculously conception occurs after wearing bike shorts for half the year. It was a nervous time as my wife and I learned she was pregnant. We couldn't tell anyone other than a few close friends. I wanted to tell all my friends and family, but it wasn't appropriate. I was so anxious to share the news with everyone reading my blog. However, there are rules about sharing things of this nature. To me, fall of 2006 seems like ten years ago.

I've never had a close friend spend two years away for humanitarian reasons. I'm so very proud of my buddy for his charitable acts. Deciding to spend two years away from family and friends to selfishly help others is most impressive. My friend may not return home the same person he was a couple years ago. He may return a changed man in many respects. Think about the sacrifice it takes for someone to join the Peace Corps. I can hardly find two free hours to read/comment/type blog entries these days. To take two years out of your life is inspiring. And by "out", I don't mean it in a negative sense in the least bit.

Tod - I can't wait for you to meet the girl who was conceived three years ago. Two years ago she barely fit in your forearm. Your mother deemed purple to not suit Baby Singes well. I've bragged about you since the day you left. At the age of 36 you've accomplished many things in your life. I look forward to hearing if you were lovestruck in The DR and what truly happens in the Peace Corps. Welcome back to Seattle my good friend. Your presence in the Pacific Northwest has been missed. Leaving the island of Hispanola will most likely be bittersweet so let it be known Téo, wherever you go hombre...you're loved.

Un abrazo fuerte...