Day 03 (Round II) "In the trenches" (Sod's Law edition)

a/k/a the "Oh, for fuck's sake" edition.

In Ireland, the phenomenon known as "Murphy's Law" in the USA (e.g., "anything that can go wrong will go wrong") is known much more colorfully, aptly, and satisfyingly as "Sod's Law." E.g., "this is the kind of bastard bad luck that comes just when you don't want/need it." And that's the kind of bastard ("sod's") bad luck I don't need at this time of year.

This time, it's mothering jury duty. Don't get me wrong: I've successfully ducked (never been called for) jury duty in the 8 years we've lived here. There's never been a time in my life when taking large chunks of it to sit in a courtroom while the Wheels of Justice grind so appallingly slow and fine. And I get that every Citizen is supposed to do her/his duty in this area.

But goddammit, it is not the best use of my time: I can do more positive things for a larger sector of the population in those hours doing what I do than sitting in a courtroom. I'll suck it up and finally report when the county auditor finally gets around to calling me up, but I'm not going to believe that I wouldn't be better served otherwise occupied.

And the timing could not be worse. We are 72 hours into the new semester with two new hires, not to mention all the Fall semester startup jitters and glitches, and I'm going to have to be essentially unreachable one full day per week for a month: no direct contact, no email, no teaching, no cell access, and barely able to communicate via text-message (thank christ for the Blackberry's SIMS and web abilities). I described just yesterday how much of a priority we had placed upon moving our teaching to the digital realm, and today am reminded it's a damned good thing, because the only way that a good number of my students are going to be able to reach me on that day, for the classes meeting on that day, is online.

And oh, by the way, those forty hours over the course of the month's 5 weekly meetings? They're gone--Jack; you ain't gonna get them back.

C.J.
The President wants to discuss broader themes for the classroom.

TOBY
I don't think there's going to be a classroom.

C.J.
The President's holding out hope.

SAM
In the meantime, Mallory's going to be there with her boyfriend. And it's
going to be weird
because we haven't spoken to one another since the picture, which was wrong,
I know. But I'm
not even sure there was an implied obligation to do that.

C.J. stops to talk to Carol. Toby and Sam continue walking.

SAM [cont.]
Please, let's remember, it's not like we were dating. It was a flirtation. We
had one date.
The rest were all with groups of people and...

Sam stops and Toby does too.

SAM [cont.]
I don't know, I don't even know what dating is anymore.

TOBY
Well, that's 20 seconds of my life I'm never going to get back.

That's how I feel too. Only it's forty hours.