king of pop

Because I use this blog as a journal I wanted to document the passing of Michael Jackson. The last few days we have been watching the MTV and VH1 specials on his life and it has been fun to see all of his old videos. Many of his songs brought back great childhood memories for both Jason and I. I remember watching the Black & White video when I was in first grade and loved how all the faces changed. Jason remembers wearing his uncles Halloween costume of the red jacket and glove from Beat it and break dancing at his grandmas. As we watched, each video brought back a new memory and I kept saying that each one that played was my favorite, but he has so many great songs that it is hard for me to choose just one. Jason says Smooth Criminal is by far his favorite with his amazing "lean" move but I have always loved Billie Jean.

Now I know he was a little strange and no one really knows if the molestation charges are true or not. But after watching the specials about his life I feel like he was so lost and confused. He was such an amazingly talented man and it is so sad that he got caught up in so many terrible things. I know everyone says this, but he was by far the best entertainer and there will never be another like him. We were talking about his music videos and how he put so much into them and everyone loved to watch them and then compared them to the videos today and there is no comparison. Jason hates when I use the word but he really was such a cool guy with his smooth moves.

summoned

A few weeks ago I was summoned for jury duty in the NYC Supreme Court and I was actually looking forward to the opportunity. I wasn't quite sure what to expect having never been called before, so I went prepared with a good book. The first day I sat in a room with 160 other strangers and listened as they called several other names but not mine, the second day (it is required that you serve a minimum of 2 days in NYC) was almost the same and I thought I would make it out of there without being called but they finally read my name on the last call of the day so I was asked to return for a third day for jury selection.

Jury selection was very frustrating and I felt like I was a witness on the stand being interrogated with all of their questions. By the end of the third day they had excused the first 5 people in our group and asked the rest of the 19 to come back for more selections. The fourth day I was finally selected, but very annoyed how people had behaved just to get out of serving. I felt like I could be fair and impartial and didn't think it was necessary to make up excuses to get out of it. However, if I had known then just how long and inefficient this process was going to be, I probably would have tried harder to get out of it. The next two days were spent sitting around and reading more (I read 3 books) while they selected the rest of the 6 jurors and 2 alternates.

I understand that everyone deserves the right to a fair trial and I have no problem with this, but there should be a rule as to how long the attorneys can take selecting 8 jurors for a civil, personal injury trial. After they finished their selections we calculated that they went through 45 people to select 8 of us. At this point I was extremely annoyed and embarrassed that I had already taken a week off of work and the trial still hadn't started.

Although I was annoyed and not looking forward to hearing more from the attorneys I was anxious to see just how the trial process worked. All I know is what I have seen in the movies, and let me just say, it's not nearly as glamorous as Law & Order. I won't go through the whole process but I will say that the judge was awesome and treated the jury like we were royalty but she always seemed so annoyed with the attorneys. My favorite was when the plaintiff's attorney was questioning a witness and had been doing so for quite some time when she interrupted and said he had two more questions and then he would be done.

The part that annoyed me the most was listening to the defenses two medical examiners and wondering just how credible their testimonies were. Yes, I am sure they were telling the truth but I felt like they weren't shown all of the plaintiff's medical records therefore they couldn't give an accurate diagnosis. I mean, how can you say that someone has not suffered neck injuries if you haven't even seen their MRI's?

In the end (after two weeks off of work)I felt like our decision was obvious, we all came to an agreement quite quickly. We found that the defendant was, in fact, negligent and rewarded the plaintiff money for his pain and suffering. I didn't like how we (the jurors) were sent back into our chambers with little direction on how we should reward the plaintiff as far as a monetary value. I mean how much do you give someone for the pain and suffering they have endured and will continue to endure for the rest of their lives? We finally agreed on an amount and after we were done I was very glad that it wasn't on a criminal case, determining the fate of someones future. I am glad it is over and happy to say I have done my civic duty!

Other than jury duty we haven't done much so far this summer (if it would ever stop raining). Jason is busy studying for the bar and I will be so happy when he is done. I thought finals were bad but this is like one big final that never ends:(

chamber magic

On Saturday we saw Steve Cohen's Chamber Magic at the Waldorf Astoria with the Granum's and it was fabulous! Kelli heard about it from another friend and looked in to getting tickets back in February but the earliest we could get them was for May. So we said it would be in celebration of Jason's graduation and got them.

It was a one man magic show in one of the private suite's in the Waldorf Towers and thanks to Bryan we were able to get a front row seat. I didn't know quite what to expect, we had to wear dresses and the men suits and when we arrived we were one of the youngest in the crowd so we were a little nervous this wasn't really up our alley. But as soon as we sat down we knew we were in for a treat.

I cannot tell you how amazing and mind boggling his tricks were. From reading minds to making cards magically rise from the middle of the deck and pin pointing the exact city on a U.S. map that a woman had written down, we were seriously in shock after each trick. But the one that left us feeling most stumped was "Think a Drink" and coincidentally Jason got to be the volunteer for this one.

Each audience member was given a blank card and on it we were instructed to write our favorite drink. Our cards were collected and Jason had the honor of shuffling and selecting 6 cards from the pile to give to some of the audience members and he then placed one in his suit coat without looking at it. Steve Cohen then pulled out his magic tea kettle with six shot glasses and one by one asked each of the six volunteers what was written on their card and then would pour the beverage into the glass and had the person drink it to confirm it was, in fact, the drink written on their paper. Of course 4 of the 5 drinks were alcoholic and Jason was literally sweating bullets that his would be as well. We were actually all nervous for Jason as he was called back up to the front. He was given the kettle and glass and as Steve read the drink on the card from his pocket Jason was asked to pour it into the glass and thankfully one good audience member chose Yoo-hoo as their favorite and Jason then poured the glass and out came the chocolate milk. Jason was relieved and sampled the beverage and confirmed that it was in fact Yoo-hoo.

It was such a fun NY experience that we totally didn't expect and we are still trying to figure out his tricks days later. Thanks for a good time, Granum's!