End of an Era

Since I have moved from "The City"  I have decided to stop blogging here and start documenting my new adventures on a different blog:  http://adventuresofshilo.blogspot.com/

Enjoy!

Law & Order: Jury Duty

*dun dun

After 10 years of evading the justice system, my time finally came.  I was summoned to Jury Duty.

Most people told me what to expect when I showed up to the courthouse, “Oh, honey, bring a good magazine. You’ll be waiting around aaalllllll day.” “You should bring your laptop, they have wi-fi at the court.”  “You call ahead the night before and you might not have to go.”

Thanks for the advice random people.

Thanks for NOTHING!

I called the night before and the automated voice with the Brooklyn accent said “you WILL need to attend tomorrow”.

Okay fine.

The first part was spot on… waiting around in a huge room with a ton of potential jurors.  They explained to us how to properly complete the forms we were given, as if we were 2nd graders who didn’t understand English.   (My forms were already filled out per instruction).

They told us that the courts were busy that day and that we all would get put on a case.  (I honestly don’t really know what that means/entails at this point)

My name was called with about 45 others and we were told to meet in this hallway “near the drinking fountain”.  They called role and then moved us to another courthouse across the street.

More rooms, more waiting around and then BOOM, all of a sudden we are in a courtroom.  Just like that.  There is a judge, and attorneys and a defendant. 

This is jury selection.

They explain the case to us.  My mouth dropped open and my heart stopped when they told me it was a Murder Trial.

WHAT?!?!? No divorce court? No property dispute? No car accident?  This is Brooklyn.  This is murder.

After questioning groups of us in the jury box, I was feeling pretty good about not getting called.  I didn’t say that much and they were choosing 15 people (including alternates)out of about 50. 

Boy was I wrong.  I was selected as Juror #11.

I spent the next five days in court.  It was kind of surreal.  My courtroom experience consisted of episodes of Law & Order,  movies like Legally Blonde, My Cousin Vinny and Chicago. 

It definitely felt more like Law & Order (no Razzle Dazzle here).  

Most of the day was spent waiting in the jury room.  But I didn't mind so much because we had an awesome view of the city

Exhibit A:

The attorneys presented their evidence and pleaded their case to us.  About day 3 I was really curious what the District Attorney actually had on this guy, because the evidence presented thus far did not even suggest that the defendant was at the crime scene, let alone commit the crime! 

I don’t want to talk too much about the case, but in the end, the DA’s office did not do enough to prove that the defendant was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.  I firmly believe, based on the evidence presented to me, that he was not guilty.

We went into deliberations on day 5 and up until this point we had not been able to discuss the case with one another.  I was interested in what other people were thinking.  We discussed the case and it was unanimous right away.  We did discuss elements of the case over lunch, then voted on it. 

We went back into court, where the foreman read the verdict.  I was really nervous for some reason.  I knew we made the right decision, but still for some reason I felt the weight of the situation and it made me very anxious. 

After he read the verdict, we were carted off back to our jury room, got our stuff and left.  That was it. 

It was so weird just leaving after spending days of getting to know these characters.  I think I wanted more closure.  I wanted to see what was happening inside the courtroom.  I want to know who actually committed the murders.  I want to know all the things that they couldn’t tell us in court. 

Regardless, I felt proud to do my civic duty.  And I do feel like justice was served… at least for this innocent man wrongly accused of murder.

Extreme Makeover: Brooklyn Bedroom Edition

My sister Ashley is a genius. 

She and Brandon came up to NY a couple months ago to "do my room".  I needed a new wardrobe because my last one was falling apart.

Ash had big plans for my usual mess and un-styled bedroom.  She interviewed me about my hopes and dreams for my perfect bedroom, what I wanted to do in my room, how I wanted it to feel, etc. 

She came up with this board of our vision and how we would proceed.

Pretty awesome huh?

So Brandon and I went to IKEA to get the goods.  

We came home to this...

 

Pretty terrifying. Does she really know what she's doing?

Well after a day and half of working it was completed.  

And I had the perfect bedroom. 

Before:

 
After:

Before:

 After:

After:

Yay! Thanks so much Ashley and Brandon!
I now love my room.  Everything has a place and it looks beautiful.

Oh, and Happy Valentine's Day lovers! xoxoxo
No I'm not listening to Beyonce's Single Ladies right now...

Witness the snow

This is what I've been experiencing all month.

 

 Yeah, I know, I'm kind of a brilliant photographer

 It's all very pretty until a couple of days later...

it turns into this:

DIRTY SNOW PILE!

This has been the snowiest January since they have been keeping records in NYC.  How have I survived it?!

I need a medal.

Amber has some great snow pics posted on her blog as well.

Old Man Winter

So I am home sick today.  Booo! Woe is me.
My throat has betrayed me and has made it impossible for me to swallow without wanting to shriek in agony. My ears are also starting to feel the side effects.  I'm still in my PJ's, haven't brushed my teeth (because I didn't want it to interfere with my OJ consumption), I've just spent way too long researching chocolate wedding cakes - hey, at least it's better than watching Maury!  I am pretty much a mess...

Oh and it's snowing outside...again.

Having grown up in the desert and not ever experienced "Real Winter" I start to notice and ponder things about winter, that have been apparent to most people.
There are different levels of winter and I determine them by fashion.

Unfortunately Blogger is being  evil and will not allow me to upload more pics...

#1)  45 degree winter:
At the beginning of winter you think this is really cold.  You put on your winter coat, but no hat or scarf yet.  Just the warm, bulky winter coat for now.  Scarves are an accessory, not a necessity at this point.
It's interesting because once you are in the depths of winter your attitude changes.  And if you get a 45 degree day you think that's warm, and might as well go out in flip flops and shorts!


#2) 30ish degree winter:
Brrrrr... it's starting to get really crisp and wintry.  This is the moment where we bust out our cute matching hat and scarf sets.  It's okay if they are more trendy then they are warm.  You want to look like a cute snow bunny.  Mittens are all the rage in this weather.


#3) 20 degrees and below winter:
All fashion choices go out the window.  You put on as many layers as you can.  You don't care what matches.  The big ugly fur hat, doesn't have any problem going with the heavy brown scarf and big puffy, purple jacket.  Gloves might look like the ones your Mom uses for gardening.  It ain't pretty.
This photo represents what I'm talking about.  Notice the pajama pants...

#4) Zero Degrees and below winter:  

This was me on Monday.  If you leave the house, you will look like this:

I'll never let go...

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

...and now that it is over, here is a taste of what the holidays looked like to me this year!

Let's start in New York City:

Then off to Virginia!

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

Stranded

I’m going to do this a bit backwards.  Forgive the chronology here as I’ll tell you all about my wonderful holiday with my family in Virginia later, but first I need to regale you with my tale of the adventure of getting home.

It was Sunday, the day after Christmas.  My train departed from DC at 7:20PM.  It was lightly snowing outside but they said there would be no delays.

 

Thank goodness I hadn’t booked a bus, or a plane!  The train zipped up to New York without any problems.   I was really surprised at how much snow was coming down outside, especially as we got to New Jersey.

 

I arrived at Penn station carrying a backpack, loaded down with a laptop, books, and food, a large bag that included my purse, new snow boots and Christmas goodies, and finally another large piece of luggage that contained all of my clothes and new Christmas presents.

 I took the escalators out to the street.  The sidewalk was cleared for about 20 feet, until the street.  There were huge snow banks and the snow was still coming down and the wind was blowing.  There were some cars in the street, and other passengers like me trying to find a cab.  It looked pretty hopeless, so I gave up and decided to take the subway home.  Luckily, they were still running and I caught a train pretty quickly. 

I got out at Grand Army Plaza, which is 6 short blocks, and 1 long block from my apartment (approximately half a mile).  It’s usually not a bad walk.  I don’t know what I was expecting to find when I got out, but when I exited the station it was not this.  It was crazy #$%&*@ blizzard!  The snow was blinding and it felt as if every little ice crystal was stabbing me in the face.  I huddled up next to a building and weighed my options.  The building offered little protection from the wind, but this part of the sidewalk at least wasn’t covered in a foot a snow like everywhere else around me.  The large street not too far from me was busy with stalled cars and people digging them out.  There were some cabs but they had their off-duty lights or were stuck.  I thought I could walk it, even though the sidewalks hadn’t been shoveled.  There was one main avenue that was somewhat plowed.   I tried calling a couple of car services.  One kept giving me a busy signal and the other one said there were no cars running tonight.  With each gust of wind I became more and more hopeless.   I crossed the street and huddled next to a mailbox, ready to give up.  It didn’t look like such a bad place to curl up and die.  “But, no! What am I thinking? This is the snow talking!  Pull yourself together Shi!”  I told myself.  But I was still at a loss for what to do.  How was I going to make it home?  I called my roommate Rachel.  She didn’t answer, I tried again.  I clearly woke her up.  I cried, “Rachel! I’m stranded and I don’t know what to do!  I’m going to DIE out here!”  I told her where I was, and she said she’d put on her boots and come help me.   I was skeptical of this plan, but I happily took the help. 

I decided that I would walk down the avenue where it was partially plowed, pulling my suitcase and lugging all of my stuff.  Rachel was going to walk up to 8^th avenue and meet me.  

(Photo Courtesy of AP - This is not me)

I felt like I was walking straight into the wind.  My eyes kept tearing up… not out of emotion, but out of physical pain.  My suitcase got heavier with each step and I had to keep lifting it, because it would accumulate so much snow under the wheels.  I passed a few other people and I felt immediately bonded to them.  We would give each other sympathetic nods and smile.  Others I passed were shoveling out an SUV which was caught in the middle of an intersection.  I said to them as I walked by, “And I thought I had it bad!”  They seemed to agree.  Now this is very odd for me, because New Yorkers don’t talk to one another in passing like this.  It’s unorthodox for complete strangers! 

So I’m trudging along and I get to the side street that I need to turn down to make it to the 7^th Avenue.  Rachel had made it thus far and I was never happier to see her. 

The biggest challenge to our adventure lied ahead on this side street.   Nothing had been plowed, so there was about 15 inches of fresh snow to contend with and it was still coming down.  Even Rachel’s footprints had already vanished! 

She took my shoulder bag and my backpack and I was able to hoist my luggage onto my back.  We forced our way into the snow, but had to stop every few steps to duck behind a car because this small street also acted as a wind tunnel and there we tried to shelter ourselves from the thrashing wind.

(Photo Courtesy of AP - This is not me)

“Stay on top of the snow!” Rachel kept yelling at me.  (Rachel, with her tiny, 100lb frame).  “I’m heavier than you and carrying more stuff…  I SINK!” I would yell back. We tried the middle of the road, the sidewalks, next to cars, everything.  There was no good place to walk.  We just took one step after another. 

Finally we made it back to the apartment.  Whew! My muscles were sore, my hair was matted and wet under my hat, my cheeks were red and burning, my mascara had smeared- making my eyes look like a panda bear.  But we were safe and the apartment was warm.

As Rachel put a pot of tea on I said, “That was the worst experience of my life.”