Maybe the general public (and especially the U.S. government) isn’t as wigged out by mental illness as I thought. Surely a letter to the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County stating that I had been hospitalized within the year for a psychiatric condition and was currently taking two antidepressants and a mood stabilizer for my bipolar disorder should have earned me a dispensation from serving jury duty. Instead, I got a phone call from a pleasant bureaucrat asking me for a note from my doctor.

Dang! I can’t do that. She and I both know that if I am capable of writing this blog, I can sit in a courtroom for a day or a week or a month and decide whether some poor sucker gets jail time or freedom. My doctor actually respects me. She may even like me. She wouldn’t guess I’m the type of person to play the mentally ill card to get out of jury duty.

So I guess I have to show up and play the stay-at-home mother card instead. (Hello…who’s going to watch the kids? I’m the nanny!) I’ll keep you posted. Worst case, there still might be some good blog material there.