Whew! This has been some month. I felt something coming on, and then the flu hit. Fever, aches, exhaustion, and so on. I was completely useless for a week, and felt too tired even to read. For 3 or 4 days I probably slept 20 hours and spent the rest of the time huddled on the couch. Good thing the kids are older.

I had received a summons for jury duty, and was asked to show up this past Tuesday. Luckily that was also the first day I felt close to being normal. I go to the courthouse and wait with 50 or 60 other people. And wait. And wait. We sat for 1 1/2 hours until the judge finally came in, explained the process, and got started. Good thing I brought a book. There were lots of people complaining, and one interesting man that snored. For over an hour. Loudly.

Anyhow, they pulled numbers from a box, and my number came up. Two people were dismissed, and a young lady and I took their seats in the back row. Then the front row was dismissed, and the seven of us remaining were the jury.

Meanwhile, I had (again) been missing a lot of time at work and my poor mom was taking on a lot of hours for me to keep the store running. But, you can't blow off jury duty!

The case was about a car accident, and we had to decide how much money to award the plaintiff for pain and suffering. It was a challenge, but in the end I think we did OK. I would have liked to see her get more money, but I was just one voice among many.

We were kept seperate from everyone else in the courthouse, and had our own entrance. We ate lunch together every day at fairly nice restaurants, and didn't have to pay for a thing! The pay for jury duty isn't great, but at least it was something. The first day I got $25, the second day $60 (long day, we were there till 7 pm), and yesterday we were paid $20 for a half day. They also pay for mileage and that should be about $30. So for three days, I will receive a check for $135. As I consider this "extra" money, it will go directly to my credit card debt. Woohoo!

Today I get back to my normal life at the toy store.

I've been too caught up with other things to pay much attention to E-Bay. I have one thing listed right now, but will get some more going over the weekend. My credit card debt is now at $2,294.52.