I’ll write something about jury duty soon, but I don’t think I’ll be posting it here. It’s not something I’d ever want to be fully publicly accessible, but I’ll send it to any of you who ask.

Our defendant was the driver in a drive-by shooting, which is the same as being the shooter as far as the law was concerned. After two days of deliberation, we found him guilty on all counts, including 2nd degree murder. I hope I never again have to see someone’s face when they’re being convicted of a crime that (as we later learned) carries a minimum penalty of 15 years without parole. I made myself watch him the whole time, but I couldn’t even stand to glance towards his parents while the verdicts were read.

Jury duty usually ends at 4, so I’m often home before 5. I thought this schedule would leave me several useful, productive hours each evening: time to catch up on the work that I’m missing, or even just work on things around the house. At the very least, I thought I’d spend time writing about my jury experience, even if I can’t publish it until later.

Instead, I find myself completely wiped out each evening. I don’t feel physically tired; just unable to put my mind to anything. Spending all day concentrating super-hard on the testimony of not-necessarily-interesting witnesses just fries my brain a little, I guess.

We start deliberations this Friday. The judge has tentatively extended our schedule through next Tuesday, but I honestly have no idea how long it will take to reach a verdict. I have a sneaking suspicion we’re going to be surprised by how differently all the jurors think about this case, but we’ll see.

I just added a movie with lots of sea lions to the Underwater Videos page.

Just a quick heads-up for those who are interested; you can now get Quicktime videos of my underwater movies here:

www.thelaitys.com/uwvideo.html

After two long months with no diving, Jeff and I were itching to get back in the water. We picked a free weekend at random and called up the Spectre in Ventura, a favorite boat of ours for the short ride (little over an hour to Anacapa), the good food, and the hot tub. Unfortunately we don’t enjoy the hot tub like we used to; now that we’re dry suit divers, I don’t usually even have a bathing suit with me. But the food was still good, and the dive site selection was outstanding as always.

Our first stop was at Underwater Island, around the backside of Anacapa. It’s basically exactly what the name says: a big rocky hill with plenty of walls and drop-offs all around, and a crevice-filled plateau up top. We plopped into the water and discovered zero current and 40 foot visibility; excellent conditions for this site.

I was unpleasantly surprised at what a difference two dry months made in my comfort level. (And also what a difference 5 Christmas ponds made to getting in and out of my drysuit – ouch!) I spent most of the first dive just remembering how to deal with my drysuit and my video camera. I finally just gave up on getting any decent footage and enjoyed the view: lots of fish, plenty of spanish shawls all over the place, and a couple of fighting lingcod near the end of my dive added a little bit of excitement.

Dive number two was near Underwater Arch. Incidentally, Jeff and I have never actually found the arch for which this site was named – we tend to get distracted en route. This time we didn’t even try to find the arch, thanks to the swarms of sea lions in the neighborhood. The captain turned on the underwater recall for a few minutes prior to opening the gates, and the noise attracted dozens of sea lions eager for some diver company. By the time we hit the water, we were totally surrounded.

We spent 40 minutes pretty much camped out on the sand, occasionally wandering off if we followed a particularly interesting batch of pinnipeds. Other divers came and went from our field of view, and we often found ourselves totally alone in the middle of a sandy plain, in what would have been the world’s most boring dive if not for being surrounded by 30 sea lions at play.

And there was no shortage of play! Sea lions nipped and nuzzled at each other, scrounged in the sand for food or toys, picked up rocks or kelp bulbs in their mouths to chew on and eventually spit out, stuck their noses in the cameras, nibbled on strobes, blew bubbles in mimicry of divers, and generally kept us (and themselves) entertained. We were sorry to leave!

Our last dive was a mostly unremarkable cruise around the rocky reefs of Cathedral Cove. I say “mostly” because I was hugely entertained by an enormous lobster that was out and about. I’ve never seen a lobster crawling around outside of its hole in broad daylight, but here on the “no-take” side of the island, I guess he’d grown old and bold. I chased him around with my video camera as he trundled across rocks, over sand, and through schools of fish. Halfway through his journey, he suddenly got annoyed at all the fish and started jumping at them – and then squirting away if they fought back.

Of course, as I followed Mr. Lobster, I managed to lose Mr. Photographer (my husband and buddy) off in the murk behind me. By the time he caught up, a class of students had descended on the sand in front of the monster lobster and scared it off, so he missed all the excitement. But at least he found his buddy… We have this problem more and more often since I got my video rig; it’s probably time we bought ourselves some pony bottles and quit even pretending to pay attention to each other!

After three dives, we were wiped out and getting pretty chilly. Yes, we felt like big sissies – I mean, we were in drysuits! How did we ever do four dives in a day wearing WETSUITS? (Well, we didn’t; at least, not in the winter months.) We decided to go easy on ourselves and do dive #4 down in the bunk room.

More pictures are posted here.

I was in the first batch of people summoned to a courtroom for jury selection. At the end of the day, I was the final juror accepted into the panel.

I’ll be going back every day for most of the next three weeks, with occasional days/afternoons off (there are two defendents and two juries, so we don’t have to all be there for every part of the trial). The court also observes a bunch of extra holidays, Feb 13, 17 and 20, so I can squeeze in a few days of work to accomplish truly crucial tasks.

On the up side: it’s bound to be an interesting case, the judge is personable and my fellow jurors seem likable and easy to deal with.

Down side: THREE WEEKS. And “I have a business trip planned to Hawaii” in no way counts as a financial hardship as far as this judge is concerned (I didn’t even try after I saw him shoot down the third person who had an “important conference” to go speak at).

Further down side: Just when I was back to working out at the gym every day, I got sick and now this. Rrrr.

Obviously I can’t really talk about the case, so I don’t imagine there’ll be much going on here in my blog for a few weeks (oh wait, I lied; I’m also diving twice and traveling to Columbia during this period). Expect a rundown of the experience once it’s over and I’m allowed to talk.