The Story of Therapy Dog Tails 583
Where Everyone Gets a Dose of Puppy Love
BACKGROUND 257: JLHS Part Two 30
Sun., Oct. 14, 2007, 6:24 a.m.
… But Ron deserves a lot better than what he is getting. He has done a lot for the school and for the department and has not gotten the sort of respect that he deserves, let along recognition, appreciation, security, support, etc., that he should get, not to mention something less than a hostile work environment to be in. He said he had seen Johannes at work on Cerrone and in general and thought that she was nothing more than a true bitch. I had hardly given her a thought for a long time and was inclined to put things behind us. (Same with David.) I even invited her to the last party at the house. But I guess things haven’t changed much unless she has become more so. I thought it was odd last week when he said that he was going into the building on Saturday to help Johannes set up her space. He did go in but for various reasons they weren’t able to do anything down there but that just shows how insecure he’s feeing - if he will put in his own time like that on something that really has nothing to do with him. People have floated the idea of coming up with a plan to oust Clarke and maybe it would be good to come up with some anti-Johannes scheme at the same time. Maybe getting rid of one would be getting rid of all three. That would be a good thing.
Anyway, Keely left as Ron and we were standing there talking. Across the room on the other side of the bar was a big screen t.v. showing the Indians tied with the Red Sox in game two. (They went up 2-1 last night.) By now there were a few people in the place. A bit later Kate and Ben got up to head for the car and we all walked out. The A train was right there on Broadway and I went down there after a hug from Ron and a goodbye from Ben and Kate, who have become close friends. Kate says that Ben is her mentor, although officially someone else is, and that she couldn’t get along without him. That’s good. Ron said that he had a crush on her and that’s understandable. But we all have going for us the idea that we are good guys and honest and wouldn’t cheat. That’s the only way that such young women would feel comfortable with us. That is true to a varying degree, however, for the three of us. Ben has said that if Stephanie Kallacharan offered, he wouldn’t be able to resist her. That may or may not be true if it came down to it. He is not on the prowl and it would be out of character if that did happen. The same is true with me, even though essentially it did happen. I blame everything on Luz, as I’ve said here hundreds of times, but, of course, there is something true between Yael and me at the same time. I believe that. Ron, on the other hand, has told me that he doesn’t think that he and Valerie are going to last much longer and so he is essentially free, although he hasn’t made that known as far as I know and he doesn’t put out any vibe like that. He doesn’t act as though he is looking for anything but then he just isn’t that sort of guy. He is an honest, loyal guy who would be faithful in a relationship. He’s also the youngest of the three of us and the fact that he has lost all the weight shows that he is in a frame of mind where he sees a future again. Clearly, there was no future that he could see last year. I’ve felt like that a lot these past two years.
Sat., Oct. 20, 2007
I guess I more or less got through that day, which is now a week ago yesterday. Last night had many similarities to the previous Friday but I might as well pick up the story from where I left off there, insofar as the Threads were in action on Sunday (Oct. 14) out here at the house and then were back at it this past Thursday (Oct. 18) here, too, a night that was not memorable for me although I was really looking forward to it. So here goes, picking up from a week ago Friday with me standing there with Ron on our way out of that Dominican place near where we once saw the Venezuelan singer. I think that guy had a brother who worked as a painter and who died shortly after that from a fall on the job.
That was about it for that Friday. Keely left; then the rest of us walked to the train / Borenstein’s car. I got home at a reasonable hour and in decent shape. I guess I related all of that on Tuesday morning as I was waiting to go to jury duty in Elizabeth so I might as well say a few words about that. I don’t recall much of what happened last weekend or on Monday. I think Steve came out on Saturday and worked some but I didn’t pay much attention to him and was not speaking to Luz after what she had done to me the previous weekend. We’re still not talking and may never talk again after Thursday so this was not a happy week for me.
I had gotten the letter in the mail at least a month earlier and had not thought much of it. In fact, it had gotten buried on the table and it was only by accident that I discovered it again when I was clearing the mail off the table. I was half assuming that I would just ignore it because it seems to me that I’ve done that in the past. I don’t recall specifically ever doing that but I know I got called at least once while living in Queens and think that I just ignored it because I never went. Then I got called in Ohio just before we moved back here and so by the time that date came up, we were out of state. I never responded to that so I don’t know if they ever tried to find out what happened to me.
But I’d heard that they are not as easy going on this as they used to be so I didn’t just forget about it entirely. I was curious about it and half thinking that I’d like to do it just to find out what it’s really like. Since the letter said that it was “1-2 days”, I figured that that wouldn’t be so bad. I could afford to miss two days of work. But I was supposed to tear part of the thing off, fill in some information, and send it back. This I had not noticed and so had not done and didn’t know what that would mean. For all I knew, there was a warrant out for my arrest by now. But even though I was backed up on marking papers and grades were due yesterday, I figured I’d take at least Tuesday off and check out jury duty.
Since I was up at the usual time and didn’t have to be there until eight o’clock, I got some typing done here. I had to be at the county courthouse in Elizabeth at eight o’clock and could only remember going in that building once, although we’ve been through there many times. That was when we were trying to get custody of Toni a few years ago so that she could go to school out here. We had to go there for something and I remember going in the front and coming out the side. I don’t think we accomplished anything there. Maybe we found out that we had to go somewhere else, but that is the only time I was ever inside there. Luz and I were there that day.
At 7:30 Geoff got up and drove me over there. There was construction around the front entrance but it’s an easy turn around there going onto Broad from Elizabeth Ave. and then coming back because of the divided one way lanes they’ve got down there. Geoff dropped me off at the side entrance because that was the first one we saw rounding the corner and that turned out to be the right one. There was a metal detector just inside with an Elizabeth cop manning it and then a lobby that was already full. I’d say there were about 50 or 60 people milling around there.
I saw a sign for a coffee shop downstairs and so headed down there and found another 30 or 40 people there. I bought a cup of coffee and sat down at a table with two other people, both of whom had done this already. Both looked to be in their 60s; the man not so talkative, the woman more than willing so I got a little information about of them. There was nothing surprising. Of course, most people have stories about the bullshit that they’ve said in order to get out of jury duty but most of that is at least half made up. It’s amazing how people just like to talk.
At a minute to eight I followed the woman onto the elevator and found them already sending the potential jurors into a courtroom. There was a door in the lobby opposite the entrance. People were lining up to show the letter to someone and we got in that line. They can just scan you now to get your information but the woman told me to fill out the part I had not filled out anyway. She gave me a card that said “juror” and a plastic clip to display it on my sweater. We all got these and had to wear them. Then we went into this fairly large courtroom and were seated by a guy directing traffic who turned out to be in charge of us for the day. There must have been at least 150 people in that room by the time they got all of us in there.
They ran a 20 minute video on courtroom procedures, nothing that I had not seen before. Then the guy in charge talked about how important it was to be parked somewhere where you wouldn’t get towed. I guess he gets hassled about that a lot after the fact. He tried to make sure that everyone was parked legally and there are lots around where jurors can park for free or get their tickets validated there. This was a big deal.
At about 8:40 or so a judge finally came in and said a few words to all of us about how important this was. He left and they started to herd us up to the fourth floor where they’ve got a juror’s waiting room. I was near the end of the line, however, and just as I got to the door of this place, it was announced that it was full and they were taking the rest of us down to the basement where the coffee shop was. That turned out to be a blessing because it was more comfortable down there and nothing happened until about ten o’clock or ten-thirty. I ate a couple of heads of lettuce and finally read the newspaper some (Post) ….