Nothing to See Here...

[WDWJonasGirl]

I can't wait to hear all about it Sherry!!

 

[auntiegem]

Michele -I really need to crank out another couple of TR installments up because next week I have......Jury Duty!

Yes, please! Until then, I'm going to go back and start at the beginning--the VERY beginning.

 

[kaoden39]

I love jury duty. I know that sounds odd, I have never been picked for a jury but I have had to sit in the courthouse all day a few times. It was delightful!! One time it was so hot and the courthouse was air conditioned and cool, plus I was able to sit and enjoy relative peace and quiet. Peace and quiet is a commodity that I treasure. I also like being able to read without interruption, and all those other little luxuries that I look forward too.

 

[Sherry E]

I can't wait to hear all about it Sherry!!

Thanks, Kaitlin!

I appreciate your sticking around!

Yes, please! Until then, I'm going to go back and start at the beginning--the VERY beginning.

auntiegem -

You're in for a lot of reading!! I appreciate your going back to the beginning. I stuck in a lot of old Disneyland photos and other stuff after the 2008 trips were over.....I will say that I think the TR's got better in my thread once 2009 rolled around, as did the photo quality (once I got a new camera).....And in 2010, my Christmas epic, "The Evil Chair and the Peppermint Cone of Death" was a photo-filled bonanza!.....In 2011, took a bunch of DLR Halloween photos, so those may be of interest.

Again, thank you so much for coming out of the shadows and speaking up!

I love jury duty. I know that sounds odd, I have never been picked for a jury but I have had to sit in the courthouse all day a few times. It was delightful!! One time it was so hot and the courthouse was air conditioned and cool, plus I was able to sit and enjoy relative peace and quiet. Peace and quiet is a commodity that I treasure. I also like being able to read without interruption, and all those other little luxuries that I look forward too.

Michele -

I can see where you would love jury duty because you live in a house full of people and noise and all of that. If I were in that situation I would probably welcome jury duty too!

My main issue is the 'being on call' thing. If the Court could tell us that we will definitely have to come in on X, Y or Z day, that would be better for me than the 'call in every day for 5 days in a row' thing. It's easy to forget to call in or check online. I know that there must be thousands of people who forget to call in at some point - and even if you call in for 4 days in a row and forget that 5th day, you will be rescheduled and on call for another week!

I checked in this past Friday evening (for Monday - tomorrow) because I just happened to be thinking about it at that moment, and I knew that I could forget once Sunday rolled around. Now I have to remember to check in tomorrow night, Tuesday, and so on.

I am hoping that my court is slow and I don't have to go in at all but if I do, I will bring a book or a couple of magazines, for sure! (It's a much smaller, but still active, courthouse than the one Downtown - there's no cafeteria or anything.)

It seems like what happens a lot with people I know (in SoCal) is that they don't have to go into Court on Monday or Tuesday, but they end up having to go in on Wednesday for the 'all-day-sit-around-and-wait-to-be-picked-for-a-jury' scenario. Typically, it seems like if you haven't had to go into Court by Wednesday, you are usually free for the whole week. But they will call people in on Wednesday if they expect trials to spring up on Thursday or Friday. And if it's a holiday week, often times they will not call you in at all.

I've never actually had to go into Court so far - I've been lucky. Either I just was not needed or I got out of it (this was when I was working and was going to lose money if I took days off for jury duty). Now, who knows? It may be a slow trial week and they don't need me, or they may want me to come in on Tuesday. We'll see. I just have to make sure to remember to check each night.

​

In other news......



Several DIS'ers and followers of this TR (Marie, Michele, Laurie, Kelly) already know about this from my post on Facebook this past Friday, but Deej, TK, etc., don't know so I will share -

Catalina Express has decided to extend their 'Free Round-Trip Boat Ride on Your Birthday' offer until April 2013!! So I get a second chance at taking advantage of it! I wrote them in the last couple of months and asked if there was any chance of the offer extending, and they told me to check back in early March for any news of new discount offers.

So imagine my delight when I saw the announcement from Catalina Express on their Facebook page that they are going to run this promo until the end of April 2013!!

As you all may remember, I ended up not using the free boat offer last year. I had to cancel, for a variety of reasons. I felt sick having to do it. It made me soooo sad. This year, my birthday is on a Saturday, which will be much better. I can take a 6:15 a.m. boat out to the Island (or 6:30, whenever it is), and take a 9:45 p.m. boat back to Long Beach from Avalon! Yes, I will be exhausted, but it is a necessarily evil. This means I will have ample time to take the sunset photos I have been wanting to take, from the vantage points I want to take them, and do other dusk-related activities (like the Flying Fish tour, if I can swing it).

I am going to try to go by myself - it's not that I don't enjoy my 'friend time on Catalina,' but I need to get a bunch of photos. And you all know that, when I am left alone, I can get tons of photos (anyone remember the "Evil Chair and Peppermint Cone of Death" photo spree from 2010?). Just in the few hours I was by myself at DLR on September 16th in 2011 on one single day, I got something like 350 Halloween-esque pictures.

I have a lot of catching up to do in Avalon - it's been many years since I have been there and I need to hunker down and start snapping away!

I am just so happy that I get a second chance to take advantage of the free boat ride offer - it costs like $70.00 now, round-trip, so it's a great deal! (Frankly, I am shocked that Catalina Express went the extra mile and extended the offer for a second year, but Disneyland did not extend their free birthday offer for a second year!)

​

Anyway, we now return to our regularly scheduled programming....which means, I have to crank out the next couple of December Disneyland trip installments!! They're comin' up....

 

[kaoden39]

Yes, I don't like the being tied up not knowing about the jury duty until the night before. It used to be that if you hadn't been called up before Friday you wouldn't have to worry, not anymore. Now you can have to show up on Fridays too. It makes no sense.

 

[tksbaskets]

Several DIS'ers and followers of this TR (Marie, Michele, Laurie, Kelly) already know about this from my post on Facebook this past Friday, but Deej, TK, etc., don't know so I will share -

Catalina Express has decided to extend their 'Free Round-Trip Boat Ride on Your Birthday' offer until April 2013!! So I get a second chance at taking advantage of it! I wrote them in the last couple of months and asked if there was any chance of the offer extending, and they told me to check back in early March for any news of new discount offers.

So imagine my delight when I saw the announcement from Catalina Express on their Facebook page that they are going to run this promo until the end of April 2013!!

As you all may remember, I ended up not using the free boat offer last year. I had to cancel, for a variety of reasons. I felt sick having to do it. It made me soooo sad. This year, my birthday is on a Saturday, which will be much better. I can take a 6:15 a.m. boat out to the Island (or 6:30, whenever it is), and take a 9:45 p.m. boat back to Long Beach from Avalon! Yes, I will be exhausted, but it is a necessarily evil. This means I will have ample time to take the sunset photos I have been wanting to take, from the vantage points I want to take them, and do other dusk-related activities (like the Flying Fish tour, if I can swing it).

I am going to try to go by myself - it's not that I don't enjoy my 'friend time on Catalina,' but I need to get a bunch of photos. And you all know that, when I am left alone, I can get tons of photos (anyone remember the "Evil Chair and Peppermint Cone of Death" photo spree from 2010?). Just in the few hours I was by myself at DLR on September 16th in 2011 on one single day, I got something like 350 Halloween-esque pictures.

I have a lot of catching up to do in Avalon - it's been many years since I have been there and I need to hunker down and start snapping away!

I am just so happy that I get a second chance to take advantage of the free boat ride offer - it costs like $70.00 now, round-trip, so it's a great deal! (Frankly, I am shocked that Catalina Express went the extra mile and extended the offer for a second year, but Disneyland did not extend their free birthday offer for a second year!)

​

Anyway, we now return to our regularly scheduled programming....which means, I have to crank out the next couple of December Disneyland trip installments!! They're comin' up....

How sweet!!! So happy for you Sherry!

I have jury duty next month. I'm happy to do my civic duty. I have to show up and sit all day. Last time it was a lot of people driving on a suspended license while doing silly things and getting pulled over.

I guess I have, em, too strong a healthcare biased opinion for most defense attorneys. I never got seated. The hardest part will be being without my iPhone/iPad/nook ALL day.

TK

 

[deejdigsdis]

Very excited that you finally get to go back to Catalina! Can't wait to see some pics.

Wondering if you had to go in for Jury Duty. I've made it to the pool of potential jurors a couple of times -- 60-70 people. Then the lawyers start asking questions. Once I mention what my husband does for a living (I bring it up if I think it could have an impact on juror selection) I tend to get pummeled with questions and then not selected. My husband really WANTS to have jury duty and sit on a jury. So far his dream hasn't been fulfilled.

 

[kaoden39]

How sweet!!! So happy for you Sherry!

I have jury duty next month. I'm happy to do my civic duty. I have to show up and sit all day. Last time it was a lot of people driving on a suspended license while doing silly things and getting pulled over.

I guess I have, em, too strong a healthcare biased opinion for most defense attorneys. I never got seated. The hardest part will be being without my iPhone/iPad/nook ALL day.

TK

What no phone or Nook? I would never make it!! I love my Nook!! I just bought myself a Nook tablet last week and it is amazing!!

 

[tksbaskets]

What no phone or Nook? I would never make it!! I love my Nook!! I just bought myself a Nook tablet last week and it is amazing!!

Someone must have a good paperback I can borrow....I haven't bought a paper book in over 3 years.

 

[mvf-m11c]

Nice to hear that you will get another shot at Catalina for your birthday trip.

 

[Sherry E]

Yes, I don't like the being tied up not knowing about the jury duty until the night before. It used to be that if you hadn't been called up before Friday you wouldn't have to worry, not anymore. Now you can have to show up on Fridays too. It makes no sense.

Michele -

Yep, even Fridays are not off limits. I'd much rather the Court just tell me that I have to come in on whatever day and go from there. It's too much to keep up with, having to call in 5 days in a row!

How sweet!!! So happy for you Sherry!

I have jury duty next month. I'm happy to do my civic duty. I have to show up and sit all day. Last time it was a lot of people driving on a suspended license while doing silly things and getting pulled over.

I guess I have, em, too strong a healthcare biased opinion for most defense attorneys. I never got seated. The hardest part will be being without my iPhone/iPad/nook ALL day.

TK

TK -

Thank you!

Well, in the past, I was working at a job that would not pay me if I had to serve jury duty. I couldn't get paid days off for anything. So I would lose money from my paycheck if I had to serve - and I was living paycheck to paycheck and had nothing in savings - which is why I tried to get out of it ("Extreme Financial Burden"). If I were/am not losing anything by going (if I am not working at a job like that), then I have absolutely no problem serving if they want me on a jury (though I tend to think everyone is guilty so I don't know why they would want me!).

The other problem was that they wanted to send me to Compton for jury duty - er, um....not an area I really want to be roaming around by myself, without a car. It's a known gang territory, for one thing. So I tried to transfer to a better location and they finally stopped trying to send me to Compton.

Another year I re-triggered the horrible disc problem in my back and was in so much mind-numbing pain that I couldn't move, let alone try to focus on a trial. I couldn't even sit in one spot without whimpering. So my doctor wrote a note and I got out of jury duty, legitimately.

So, all in all, I have never had to go into the Court (yet) - not even for that 'all-day-sit-around' fun-fest because I either got out of it, or I called in all 5 days in a row and they just didn't need me to come in. Two different times I had jury duty in Summer - and both of those times I did not have to go in. (An attorney later told me that a lot of the L.A. judges go on long vacations in July and August so it's not surprising if there are not as many trials at certain courthouses.)

Now, at the courthouse I am currently assigned to (if I have to go in), I think we are allowed to bring phones into the courthouse with us but we have to keep them hidden in our purses or whatever while in Court. We can't take them out in the courtroom, but we can have them with us. People make calls on breaks and things.

Are you not allowed to bring your phone into your courthouse with you at all?

Very excited that you finally get to go back to Catalina! Can't wait to see some pics.

Wondering if you had to go in for Jury Duty. I've made it to the pool of potential jurors a couple of times -- 60-70 people. Then the lawyers start asking questions. Once I mention what my husband does for a living (I bring it up if I think it could have an impact on juror selection) I tend to get pummeled with questions and then not selected. My husband really WANTS to have jury duty and sit on a jury. So far his dream hasn't been fulfilled.

Deej -

Thank you! I am really hoping that I can make this Catalina trip work this time, and that everything will be in my favor (like the weather not being too hot, for example). I am not going to get a third chance at a free birthday boat ride, so this is it. And I need to get caught up on my picture-taking!

I told you last year that I even had a trip report title in mind for Catalina (though we all know how my TR titles go - I start with one and then just change it on a whim as I go along!). I can finally put that to use - but I will have to do the TR over in the Southern California section or the California TR section of this forum, and not here in this thread.

I did not have to go in for jury duty today, and I don't have to go in tomorrow either. But, as I was telling Michele a few days ago, it seems like a lot of people I know do not have to go in on Mondays or Tuesdays. Then they end up having to go in on Wednesday and sit around all day. I have a feeling Wednesday may be my day (which I will find out when I call in tomorrow evening). So if they call me I will just go in and get it over with. (Plus, maybe I will see someone famous - this is the same courthouse where Jennifer Lopez had to do jury duty a couple of years ago.)

I hope your husband eventually gets to see his dream of sitting on a jury realized. (I chuckle only because I know how many people try to get out of jury duty, and go to all kinds of great lengths to get out of serving, so it's amusing to me that someone actually wants to serve badly and can't get on a jury!)! I can see how his line of work would raise a few eyebrows among the attorneys and cause all kinds of questions! They probably just assume that you would be biased, your husband would be biased and anyone who is related to your husband would be too.

​

Well, I had intended to get another Disneyland TR installment up today since I was jury duty free, but I woke up with a splitting sinus headache and by the time that went away, my stupid Internet was not working (the signal has been going out off and on lately). And now I am just too tired.

So I am hoping I can get something up tomorrow!!

 

[Sherry E]

Nice to hear that you will get another shot at Catalina for your birthday trip.

Bret -

Thank you so much - I really hope it works out this time!

I just now realized that I didn't see this post from you last night. I guess you must have posted it while I was typing out my replies to Michele, TK and Deej, and then it got stuck in that 'last post on the page' position so I didn't see it when I submitted my responses.

Oddly, I just received the DIS' e-mail notification for your post a few minutes ago! I don't know if it was caught up in cyberspace, but it just got to my inbox this morning. So when I noticed that you had actually posted last night, I clicked on the link in the e-mail alert to get directly to your post - and it took me to a totally different page altogether. Weird!

By the way - don't you hate it when things disappear on the previous page? You could type out a whole TR installment, or a reply to someone else's comments in detail, and then suddenly the TR starts a new page in 2 seconds and whatever you posted gets buried right away. I have commented on certain TR's before, and my post was the last post on the previous page - and was never seen. I have replied to people in my own TR and the reply gets stuck on the previous page and they never see it. And look what happened with your post here - it ended up being the last post on the previous page and I didn't even know it was there until this morning, when the delayed notification arrived in the e-mail!

I think that people's natural tendencies are to just look at the page that is on the screen and not go back to the previous page, so a lot of stuff gets missed in various threads!

​

Anyway, I am working on the next installment of this TR right now - just in case I get stuck in jury duty tomorrow (or possibly the rest of the week?) and can't do anything. As I explained previously, this will be the last segment of the 'Pre-TR/Background/Intro/Setting the Stage' stuff (since I did not do an actual Pre-TR last December), and then we will go into the December TR. So I will have something up today (barring anymore unforeseen Internet outages)!

 

[kaoden39]

Someone must have a good paperback I can borrow....I haven't bought a paper book in over 3 years.

I have but they were for my kids and well, we don't have the same taste. My son likes zombie books like his dad and the daughter well, lets just say all of her books are hardback teenage angst books.



Sherry,

I am patient because I know it will be well worth the wait.

 

[WDWJonasGirl]

I'm all caught up Sherry!!

 

[mariezp]

Waiting patiently Sherry. We head out to WDW on Friday so maybe there will be something new to read by the time I get back.

 

[kaoden39]

Waiting patiently Sherry. We head out to WDW on Friday so maybe there will be something new to read by the time I get back.

Ooh sounds fun!! Do you have a trip report? I hope you all have a wonderful time!!

 

[Sherry E]

Marie -

I had no idea you were even still out there! I hadn't heard a peep out of you since my first installment. I had no clue if you read the second installment (about "M" and how my friendship with her originated and evolved over the years).

In any case, I saw the e-mail alert come through this morning, telling me that you had posted in this TR. That alone was surprising because I don't always get e-mail alerts for my own TR.

I have been having major problems trying to get onto the DIS in the last few weeks, and it is stressing me out. I have no clue if it has to do with their servers and my PC issues combined or what, but it is literally making my blood pressure rise. I have been having fewer issues with Facebook and I can usually get in there without incident, but the DIS' site has been very troublesome for me, as has my own e-mail!

I have also been having extra trouble getting online since the weekend. It's something to do with "the line" itself. A service guy was supposed to come out to check it, and then it was cancelled, and now I am left hanging as to how long this Internet issue is going to continue.

It just took me about 45 minutes to finally get into my own TR here to be able to reply. So you can see why the TR installments have not been coming at lightning speed. I wanted to post installment #3 over this past weekend - which would have been the final part of the "Pre-Trip Report" segment - but it just was not possible.

Thanks for sticking with me, Marie!

 

[Sherry E]

I wanted to do a test post here. Since I last posted yesterday, the DIS technical wizards were hard at work on switching servers and all of that. I have been reading some posts about folks who have submitted replies in threads, and their posts are not appearing.

What happened to me was, this morning, I got an e-mail alert that Michele had posted in my Disneyland/Christmas Superthread last night. So I clicked on the link within the e-mail to get the thread (which I do all the time)...and it led me to a thread on the WDW side of the board.

Then I randomly clicked on another link in some other thread - don't even remember which one - and it did not go to the right place either.

So now I don't know if posts are going to appear at all (it looks to me as though no one has posted here since yesterday), and I don't know if allllllllll of the links I have posted in this thread, in my Halloween and Christmas Superthreads and who knows where else, have now becoming incorrect because they are going to the wrong threads. I shudder to think that this could be the case. I think I might just pass out if that happens.

I don't know if this post will appear or not but if anyone is out there following along and can see it, can you post something here so I will get the e-mail alert and I can test the link in the e-mail alert to see if it is going to the right places?

 

[tksbaskets]

How did you test post work out?

I didn't get picked for a jury. Not too bummed about that. We couldn't bring in any phones Sherry. Which they told us about ahead of time. I was not prepared for the "Write down the dates in April you are unavailable" when we walked in. Hello - that is on my phone - UGH. Would have been nice to know ahead of time that we needed a paper calendar. How archaic

Hope all is well for you. It's busy for me trying to get our taxes finished up. Could use a little more information on Aunt Betty to keep me going....

 

[deejdigsdis]

I'm here too! I had been wondering if you got chosen to be on a jury.

Hi TK!