Where to start...

I'll begin with January. New Year's was wonderful. We spent New Year's Eve with my Nana and Papa and the rest of the family for Nana's birthday. We were pretty tired since we had driven back from Tallahassee the day before. Then we spent NYE/evening with friends over at Allison's condo. I could tell we were getting older when we decided to celebrate New Year's with New York and all headed home at 11pm. hahaa We prefer our sleep!

Other little events happened: Got a pedicure with Casey (that's big for me), Saw the "Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness" exhibit at the BMA, went to the ASO (free ticket's from sweet Anna in our church choir) and heard some fabulous Dvorak among other amazing pieces... then it was Keith's 26th birthday! I got him his annual Publix Carrot Cake and we had Mom, Dad, and Alli over to help us eat it along with coffee... yum!

February started off with a bang! I got jury duty so February 1 I went downtown thinking they would keep me for a few days... yeah, right... I got on a week long murder trial. It was extremely interesting and I felt so patriotic. Finally, I was able to exercise my citizen rights in a new way. I vote in every election but this isn't something that everyone gets to do. Overall, the case was not a hard one. We ended up going with manslaughter (even though the evidence clearly pointed towards Capital Murder)... there just was that slight bit of doubt that we all decided manslaughter would be the best outcome. It wasn't as easy to deliberate though... One man juror (against all of us 11 jurors) made it clear (in the middle of the day friday) that he wanted the weekend to think it over and come back Monday and Tuesday to make his decision to go with us... hmmm i'm sure it had nothing to do with the fact that he was talking all week about enjoying being off work and getting paid leave. Yeah, I'm sure! Then when the judge told us to keep deliberating (she wouldn't take "let's come back monday" when it was 11am Friday... and she wouldn't take a mistrial until 5pm like normal!)... so we went back and tried to reason with him. He later showed us that he had some kind of crazy personal issue with this case and was turning it into some kind of racial issue. When we finally reasoned with him that (the case had been a black male who happened to kill a white male) if the case had been the exact same but the races were switched then we would vote the same way! Only looking at the evidence and sticking with the law... that's when he stopped making up stories and ignoring the evidence and accusing witnesses of being more involved (when he had no idea of any of that being true... it wasn't evidence)... he finally went along with the rest of us. This man just wanted to make a racial point and get off of work. We were all so upset... yelling, arguing... one woman was crying, one woman was standing by the bathroom in case she got sick. It was crazy!!! People say the system is screwed up... I am sure that can be the case sometimes but it is usually "people" who screw with the system! That's what makes me mad!

This crazy juror was hard to deal with but it was the actual trial that has been hard to get off my mind. I feel guilty in a way because I happened to be born in Homewood where practically no crime happens. I was lucky. This young man who was on trial and all the other young men who were involved (and came on the witness stand in shackles) were all born in a bad part of town. It wasn't their fault they were born into it... it just happened that way and growing up they haven't had the opportunities that I have had. It's just been hard to understand why this kind of stuff happens. Most of them had dropped out of school by 9th or 10th grade. They didn't have the kind of role models or activities to keep them clean. That is why I am so proud of Keith. He is giving these underprivileged kids something to keep them in schools. Band and music! They look forward to it! It keeps them busy and hopefully at least one of them (I wish all...) could keep it up through high school and get a scholarship for band or something like that in college!

Wow, I should have saved all the murder trial jury duty stuff for a separate post hahaa. It was just an eye opening experience that will keep me thinking for a loooong time.

Other than that - oh, Christi and I helped Allison at the Dawson Bridal Show. Her side business which is booming had a booth. So much fun! The next one is at the Wynffrey Hotel at the end of the month! That one is the huge one! It's going to be sooo great!

Let's see, I need to get my car fixed. I hate cars... We had snow last weekend! Friday we got to go home early from work and it was already white everywhere - so beautiful.

Valentine's Day was wonderful - Keith cooked steak, asparagus, burgundy mushrooms, salad, and wine for me! Then he gave me flowers (roses) and a box of chocolates which we ate all weekend! So yummy! Okay, I think that does it for this "catch up" post.

Abigail