I got a summons for jury duty a couple weeks back. I was excited. Then Berck said, “It’s not during our trip to New York, is it?” We’re leaving Tuesday night and coming back on Monday next week.

Sure enough, my date was for today. If I got selected for a trial, it would probably conflict with our trip. Not only that, but the way I think it works here is, you call on Friday evening to see if you show up on Monday morning. If you don’t have to show up on Monday, you have to come on Tuesday, and if you don’t come Tuesday, you have to come on Wednesday.

Fortunately, you get one chance to change the date of your jury duty. So I signed the affidavit saying I had conflicting plans and put down that I was available after we got back. I got a call from one of the court lackeys asking if Monday, July 30 would work. I didn’t have anything going on then, so I said sure.

Berck says I’m the only person in the country to get excited about jury duty. Of course, I wouldn’t possibly get picked because my occupation is “legal assistant,” and one side or the other in a case is going to want people who know as little as possible about the law.

Berck found out a perk of not being hired anywhere else before the end of his employer’s contract: he gets to fly one of the planes they use back to the leasing company in Rockford, IL. He asked if he could take me along, and his boss said, sure, why not. A trip of a lifetime, cross country in a small, slick, top-of-the-line plane… can you imagine? All we had to do was buy me a plane ticket from O’Hare to Denver. It’s terribly exciting.

We’d leave Wednesday, August 1. Then I realized, I had jury duty scheduled that Monday. And I’d already used my one chance to change the date.

I called on Friday, but apparently, they aren’t in the office on Fridays. I left a message and worried all weekend. Surely, I wouldn’t get selected for a trial, but it wouldn’t matter if I had to show on Wednesday. A trip of a lifetime and all that was keeping me from it was the threat of jail time. I felt horrible.

So today I called again at 9:30, hoping the morning rush would be over and I’d actually get someone on the phone. After listening to the five minute long message, selecting the right numbers to push, and waiting on hold to Baroque music, a human being actually said, “Hello?” I recognized his voice. He was the same guy I’d talked to the first time I changed my date.

I didn’t mention that I’d already used my one chance. I told him my name. “I’m calling to see if I can change my date for jury duty.”

He either remembered me or had some pretty efficient software, because he said immediately, “You’ve already switched your date once. Why do you want to change it again?”

“I really want to serve!” I said, “But the strangest thing happened. My husband is a flight instructor, and he has to fly a plane back to Illinois. And they said I could go with him!”

“Well,” he said, “Okay. But you can’t change it again. Will August 20th work for you?”

Nothing cool had better take place on August 20th.