Juror #37*

Jury selection days are hard on Snohomish County Employees who use the parking garage. The sheer number of potential "parkers" in an unfamiliar parking garage seem to make the usual morning comfortable choreography of the "regular" most difficult.
First problem is that a large amount of the first floors parking spaces are reserved for carpools, elected officials and director level staff. Being human (and a bit intimidated) visiting jurors usually jump right into one of those spaces to only realize half way parked that they are reserved.....This begins the first frustrated pull out. As the jurors get into the deeper floors of the garage they start to see that many of the cars are backed into stalls instead of pulled right in nose first. You can almost see the light bulb above their head as they then start to look for a space that will comfortably allow a "back in" maneuver. Unfortunately it is usually level D or E when they find the appropriate space which half way into backing in realize that the space is reserved for county rigs only.....Second frustrated pull out. Finally a juror will find a perfect space for backing in, one that is not reserved and that is relatively close to an elevator. Most certainly the first back in attempt needs to be straightened, pulled out, wheels turned and attempted again. The frustrating thing about this is that by this time there is usually a long line of parking garage regulars who have now been stuck behind several of these parking novices.
This morning I was behind a juror who attempted all of the above moves. Because of his back in choreography I was able to see his face quite clearly. I tried to smile and remember that I'm a government employee and take pride in the fact that just one encounter with me may set the tone of this gentleman's visit. "Make Their Day" is something I try to strive for with every interaction. I believe in it so much that I have a poster one of our cartographers (they are so good to me) made for me that says this in bold print with a picture of the fish market workers/throwers at Pike Place Market.
Finally snugly placed (nose in) in my favorite space at the bottom of the garage I parked and walked towards the elevator. The other joy about the "jury shuffle" is stopping on multiple levels to pick up those going to the plaza level. I stopped at floor F, E, and D. At floor D we only heard a mans voice call out "Never mind I'm taking the stairs!" As the doors began to close a fellow elevator passenger yelled out "That is a lot of stairs." An arm and the head (that coincidentally belonged to the juror I watched do the parking shuffle) quickly reached into the elevator in an attempt to catch a ride. As the door continued to close on both his arm and head he popped back out. As he popped out his juror badge fell to the floor of the elevator.....Juror #37*.
Oh don't fret, I was able to catch up with Juror #37* and reunite him with his badge. He laughed and said "Thank you, you made my day."!
*In an attempt to protect the actual jury member in this story his badge may have (or may not have) been Juror #37 ;-)!
Do I love you?
OH MY DO I ❤