Jury Duty

This week I served jury duty for the first time.

I've always wondered what it would be like - and now I know! It is pretty interesting. :)

Monday I was selected to sit on a jury for a trial that was held today. I won't really go into details of the trial - it was a fairly cut and dry case for a drug charge which isn't the interesting part of my experience.

First - jury selection itself was an interesting process to be a part of. The questions that are asked during selection range from fairly benign to personal about your experiences with the court system. While I did spend several hours just waiting around to be called - once we were in the courtroom for jury selection things really were more interesting. It was neat to see the various people that are called at one time to serve on a jury and hear answers about what other people in the community have experienced.

Next - the trial was very interesting. While it took awhile to get started, our trial had a fairly unique and interesting twist at the get-go. One of the other jurors was dismissed from the jury immediately after we were called into the courtroom. He had been in an elevator riding up to the courtroom when he overheard a conversation between a police officer and another person regarding the trial. He did ask them to stop and was honest and told the judge immediately.

After that situation was resolved, opening statements started and witnesses were called. As far as the procedure of the trial went - it seemed pretty standard. While the defendent was quite animated and vocal about what questions he wanted his lawyer to ask, for the most part questioning was pretty tame. Also, hearing the defendent testify was interesting. I was not expecting to hear him testify - it's my understanding that a in most cases the defendents do not testify.

We had 3 breaks - one in the morning, one for lunch and one in the afternoon. At about 4pm we got the case and started deliberating. While it was a fairly cut and dry case - there was one stipulation in the jury instructions that did raise a few questions. As a whole, we discussed the evidence and our interpretation of the testimony and were able to come to a unanimous decision (which is required in a criminal case like the one we were deciding). That decision was "guilty" - but like I said, it was a pretty cut and dry case. I really enjoyed hearing everyone debate in the jury room and see how the process worked and how each person came to a conclusion about the various issues at hand.

After we delivered our verdict, the judge came into the jury room to answer questions we might have and talk to us about the process. Talking to Judge McNamara was incredibly interesting. He shared several insights with us and was able to answer questions we had about the process and the case. He was honest and open and answered all of our questions. It was fantastic to have the opportunity to learn from him.

All in all I think it was a good experience. I think I understand a little more about the judicial process now and I think we made a good decision in our deliberations and coming to a verdict.

Plus, I'm all done with my civil duty for the next 4 years.

No training... and a little honesty.

This past weekend we ran the Shamrock Shuffle 5K. It benefits the Boys & Girls Club of Dane County.

The bad thing about it is that we did NOT do any kind of training. In fact, neither of us had run at all since the Zoo Run Run in September. Which means that despite our efforts at the gym recently - running the route was SO HARD. We (at least I) did a lot of walking. I managed to run part of the hills - and can I say that if I NEVER see the Observatory Drive hill again it'll be too soon. Oofta.

Despite not training, we made it through. We are both still slightly sore. (We were going to go to the gym today, but I had jury duty and didn't get done until 6:30 - more on that in another post.) But - we did much better than I thought we would!

Here are our results:
Me -- 47:12 -- averaging a 15 minute mile.
Chris -- 39:02 -- averaging a 12 minute mile.

That means we can easily work our way better. I know I plan on doing the Zoo Run Run again this year - and thought about doing the Madison Mini 5K. Since it's in August (and the ZRR is in September), we should have time to get back into a training routine.

Outside of the 5K we've done a pretty decent job of hitting the gym regularly. It's been a great stress reliever. We both feel good after the workouts - and each time we've gone the muscles have hurt a little less the next day. That *has* to be a good sign, right?

Hopefully this, combined with our new "diet" will help me drop a few pounds. I have to be honest - I need to drop quite a few of them. My doctor told me at my recent check up that I should be 30 pounds lighter. That's the goal. This past week I lost about 3 pounds. If I can keep that up - it'll take me 10 weeks to be 30 pounds lighter. I'm aiming for July. That gives me 16 weeks to drop the weight. I figure the extra time allows me to have a few weeks when I backslide - and doesn't force me to gung-ho right this instant with a crazy diet and insane workout schedule. I've done that before and it's not the easiest thing to maintain. Additionally, I know that there will be (and have been) weeks when I simply won't have time to make it to both gym classes during the week. (Like this week - I missed today.)

This is my current plan - keep up the current "diet." One red meat meal a week. Two veggies for every dinner. No processed sugar. Breakfast with protein. Small lunch and small snacks between meals - usually fruit of some kind. So far I've been able to follow the diet fairly easily and feel fairly energetic and full most days.

Part two of the plan - be extra active. This has been relatively easy. Gym on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Walk Dexter on non-gym days. A hike on the weekend and (hopefully) hot yoga on Saturdays. Chris and I also want to check out Boulders gym on the eastside - they have classes in rock climbing there that could be fun and beneficial. It's still to be determined if we continue our current gym classes if we start taking classes on the eastside. I'd like to - but it would seriously diminish the time we get to spend with Dexter. We'll see what happens. :)

Part three of the plan - get back to running. We'll fit it in somewhere! It's possible that we'll turn our walks with Dexter into runs with Dexter again. I also want to try out trail running - so maybe some of our hikes on the weekend will end up as trail runs. Somehow we need to fit in the running. Because another 5K without training would be difficult!

I think I'll be able to get it all done. I recently bought a wellness journal from Moleskine and I LOVE it! It's helping me track what I eat and the calories in everything that I eat - as well as track my physical activity, log upcoming events and keep inspiration as well as journal goals and whatnot. It's fantastic. :) I'd highly recommend it to someone who would like a little help keeping track of their wellness.

As for other 2011 goals - I've been bad about crafting. It's turned out to be a VERY busy couple of months... I'm sure I'll get back to the crafting if things get slowed back down. Having a little time on a weekend to sew or make cards or teach myself how to make jewelry would go a long way to getting me back on track. I've been pretty good about doing some photography each weekend. Being out and about every weekend has really helped with that. Additionally, going to the International Festival two weekends ago was a huge help with that -- it gave me a great opportunity to play around with my camera's settings. Hopefully this weekend I'll get some "play time" with my camera. I missed out on that this past weekend. We were very busy Saturday with Chris' parents and Sunday we had the 5K that took our morning and ended up seeing a movie in the afternoon. (I'm not complaining - it was an amazing weekend!)

So, stay tuned for more goal updating! :) (Intersperesed with some other ramblings and dabblings in various whatnots.)

Back on Track (again...)

So. I've been blog-absent for the past few weeks. It's been a crazy couple of weeks. Things continue to be contentious and tense at the Capitol - which continues to make me tired at the end of the day. Luckily, I've been able to get myself back on track after a few weekends out of town and a busy weekend this past weekend.

First - we've made it to the gym two Tuesdays in a row!
Second - we're doing pretty well with the healthy eating plan. We've both basically cut out processed sugars. We occassionally split a soda - but I think occassional indulgence is a good thing.
Third - I've been able to do some serious photo-taking the past 3 weekends!
Fourth - I'm starting to keep closer track of what I'm actually eating - which should be a good thing.

Three weekends ago we went to Dubuque. Among a lot of fun with Chris' parents - we also went for a hike at the Mines of Spain. It is BEAUTIFUL there. Also - it was a really great hike. We'll go again in the spring when it isn't so icy and muddy.

Two weekends ago we spent the weekend with my parents and my brother and his fiancee in Prairie du Chien. We rented a cabin and went eagle watching. It was incredibly relaxing and so very, very nice to spend time with my family. Plus we saw 30 or so eagles in the weekend - which was AMAZING. And we learned a lot about eagles. A little education is always nice on the weekend.

This past weekend we went to the Internation Festival with our good friends Jen & Jamie - who just moved to Madison. The festival was incredible! So many performances by so many interesting people. Also - incredible food from some local restaurants. We've officially become addicted to Fuzzy's Taco Shop. Below is a  photo from the festival - one of my favorites because I accidentally got my camera's shutter to slow down and got a really interesting result:

This is a performance by a group of dancers doing a Chinese ribbon dance. It was super cool!

This weekend we'll probably go out to the Capitol Square and check out some of the protesting and hopefully get out for a hike with Dexter. One of my new goals is to go for a hike and/or a long walk every weekend.

Well, that's what has been up. Hopefully I'll get some good photos this weekend to share with you next week!