...I got excused from jury duty. Fully excused this time. Apparently being partially disabled, being on certain medications that cloud my thinking, having various doctor's notes about surgeries and being unable to sit on those hard chairs for eight hours a day due to my hip and low back are not valid reasons to be fully excused without being recalled in six months, but being a stay at home mom who has to take her kids to and from school or be home with them on non-school days and has a spouse working in another state and cannot afford to pay someone else to do that because all our money is going to pay off past medical bills, is. Go figure.

But at least I feel like I have my life back now. That I don't have to wait another stomach-churning day to figure out if they are going to call me or not. That I don't have to worry about not drinking water all day or having violent allergic reactions to people's perfume or cigarette stink. That I don't have to have all my months of physical therapy ruined by being unable to move like I need to move throughout the day to avoid wrecking my body. That I won't have to go through the muscle spasms that would be caused by sitting in those chairs for so long.

None of it would be worth the $10 a day stipend. $100 to regress all the physical progress I have made and had to spend $1700 out of pocket for. Yeah, that's really what I wanted to do. I like walking without a cane. I like being able to go up and down stairs like a normal person again. I like only having to use my handicapped parking permit 1 time out of 10 and not every day. Going backwards I'm not a big fan of.

The only thing is I know that in a year or two when we buy a new house and we move and I have to change my address with the DMV and change my voting address (it's automatic now with changing it at the DMV) it will just pop me up on their list again. It does that every time I change my address or renew my license. Like clockwork. But at least I know which reason to use now. I suppose that is something.

And someday when I am healthy and strong and my kids are grown and they call me to serve, I will go. Of course, that is probably when they will finally give up calling me to serve.