I'm Free...

... to do what I want, any ol' time.

My word for this year is free. You're thinking right now, "what the heck is she talking about," and I point you to the first post on this blog last year, when my word was contented. I find that the word tends to center me and I'm planning on doing some things to remind me of my word, ala the advice of ye great scrapbooker . I am also working on a project for my word. Pictures of said project, you ask? Well, that would require the project to be finished and it is not.

Instead this girl got a bee up her rear to do a bunch of cleaning/sorting this weekend. I cleaned the kitchen, including the wee pantry we have (which is an old icebox) and get rid of old/bad for us food we had around these parts. I washed the floor and put down a new rug. I also cleaned the bathroom and sorted through some junk laying on flat surfaces around here. Then yesterday, when I intended to finish my project, I instead cleaned out my closet. This included removing clothes that don't currently fit me and putting those that I'm not donating to a worthy cause into Space Bags , wonderous inventions that they are, so I could hang clothes that do fit me in the closet, instead of shoving them into the cavernous hole where they then fall on the floor and mix in with the dirty laundry (which I also sorted out). In addition, I also transported our packed up Christmas decorations and delivered them to my mom's garage. Once there I helped her put some things away and also sorted through some other boxes there.

In other words, I was a not-so-lean, not-so-mean, cleaning machine this weekend! This fact left little room for crafting or other enjoyable activities, so now I just want to sit back and do fun stuff, but I'm kinda tired.

In other news, I had jury duty today and got put on a jury. That NEVER happens to me. I have no idea why they put me on this time, but I was surprised. While I normally loathe jury duty -- and I get called for it OFTEN -- this time a part of me wanted on the jury. Why? Well, I was thinking about it on my way home (using my free bus pass thankyouverymuch) and concluded that being on the jury meant:

A) A break from my job, that although I am very grateful for, has been slightly frustrating as of late. This frustration was exacerbated by a snafu caused by FedEx related to a booth arriving for a tradeshow over the weekend which required me to be on the phone for much of the time I wasn't cleaning, so while the snafu was resolved, my desire to be in the office today was not great. In addition, my job can be dull at times and well, this is a change of pace.

B) Although I believe in principle our justice system should work, I think there are times it doesn't. It was painfully obvious to me, and I'm sure the attorneys on the case and the defendant, that even though there were 50 of us in the room for jury selection, this person was not going to get a jury of his/her peers. This person is Black and I think I counted 2 Black people in the pool. That alone to me signals a potential shortfall in our system. So there was a little part of me that thought that simply being aware of the fact that this person wasn't sitting in front of "peers" might benefit the process. Who knows?

All I know is I'm there for the next 3-5 days. I'm sure my boss is thrilled. Not. I actually tried to make myself appear unappealing to the attorneys, but alas, I guess it didn't work. Now that I'm here, I'll do my best to be a good juror, however hard I may have tried to avoid being one prior to selection.

I guess that's it. I leave you with a photo that I like, cause I like it. No other reason.