The New Frontier

I am giddy, I will admit, at crossing over into a new frontier. Heightening my joy is that fact that it never should have happened.

This morning, I reported for jury duty. When I first pulled the summons from our PO Box, I sighed. Then I glanced at the five-year old face at my side and realized I had a lesson in the making. Joshua heard all about how the people Daddy takes care of during the day may or may not have not a wrong thing. How a judge is the one in charge of a meeting where two people called lawyers make a speech. One says the guy did do the wrong thing; one says he didn’t. They have a group of people, just like Mommy, who listen and then go decide who’s telling the truth. How privileged we are to search for truth. Fascinating stuff.

So, according to the summon’s direction, I was prepared to stay all day. Instead, we were dismissed after orientation and won’t be called until almost two weeks from now. This is a county to love. They didn’t have any security checkpoint, the jurors did not have to show ID, and we could write down the day we were unable to serve and, within reason, be excused. I hit the Dollar Tree and then New to You, the best resale shop I’ve ever been in, where I found some terrific deals and jeans long enough for me that still fit my waist. Popped in to have lunch with my newly-settled grandparents and visited.

Which leads me to the new frontier. When Mom and I write together, we are each responsible for 45,000 words of the book. I’d never written anything more than 45,ooo words of a book.

Until today! After the kids and hubby were down to bed, I hammered out those fresh new words. I’m on the downhill slope to the end of the book. Barring an extended trial (we serve for a 3 month term here), I should finish up at the end of February.

And we met our quota of having 100 subscribers sign up for the Ashberry Lane Newsletter by the end of the year! (www.ashberrylane.net/update.aspx)