when someone's future is in your hands.

Thank goodness jury duty is over. As the first week of February approached, I didn't dread the thought of calling after 5pm every Monday for eight weeks. Maybe I'll get called, I thought, and I can miss a day of work. I thought this even though I play catch up at work every day and have to play harder when I miss a day.

I did get called. Twice. And I got picked to be on the jury both times. What is it about my face that says "FAIR AND BALANCED WEIGHING OF THE TESTIMONY" rather than "ROOMMATE IS A COP"?

In the first case (aka Team Old White Man Jury), the charges were abduction and attempted robbery. From my point of view, and the point of view of most of my fellow jurors, this was a case of misunderstanding. Was the defendant trying to abduct the girl? We thought not. Was he trying to rob her? 10 of us thought not, and 2 wondered "Why else would he approach her at 8 am in the way he did?" Sure, he approached her inappropriately. Sure, I would have been scared, too. Based on what I know about 20 year old males, I'm quite confident that the only reason he approached her was to try to get her number. He had money. He was drunk. He did a lot wrong that day, but trying to abduct and rob the girl wasn't part of it.

In the second case (aka Actually Reflective of the Population of the City of Hampton Jury), the charge was possession of cocaine. Oh, I thought when the judge read the charges, this one is easy. He either had it or he didn't. Not so much. Five of the members of this jury had been on a jury before this term. We all knew what the deal was: there was just too much reasonable doubt. Why would he have the drugs, if he knew he would be tested for drugs soon? Why wouldn't the prosecutor present evidence of past drug use, after 10 years of random drug testing? Why didn't they check the crack stem for DNA the same way they tested the dollar bill? Was the sun up, or wasn't it? We were left with too many questions to say definitively one way or the other and by law and the instructions given to us by the judge, that means we couldn't say he was guilty. Assumed innocent, and all that. Don't feel bad, HotCop told me after she played 100 Questions about Erika's second jury experience, if he really is a crack head, he'll get caught one way or the other. Yeah, thanks. Are you trying to make me doubt myself?

I'm glad I had the experiences as I've always been fascinated by courtroom drama and it was interesting to experience firsthand. But it's stressful as hell to think about your view of things having that much influence on their future. I don't recommend jury duty if you can help it.

on dieting of late

As many of you know, I love food. Sometimes I love food much too much. With the blasted yellow dress looming in my future, and pairs of too-tight jeans piled in my closet, I knew the time was here. The time has come for me to actually watch what I eat.

When I first started working at The Company, I was obsessive about bringing my lunch. Vegetables, yogurt, sometimes a cookie or two, and a Coke. Hardly anything. Then I started actually talking to my coworkers, then going out to lunch with my coworkers and that's when I fell off the lunch wagon. By the time I moved to the second floor, a good week was one when I brought my lunch once a week, and I'd gotten used to eating more than just two or three things. Meatloaf! Burrito! Fries! Chips and salsa! So good! It was a calorie fest every day, and who cared? I still fit in my size 8s, in some stores a 6.

Trying to regulate my own diet didn't work either. "Only one burrito a week," while a noble goal, does not a weight-loss plan make. Neither "Give up 7&7s!"

At the beginning of 2007, I "started" my healthy eating habits. A vegetable at every meal! I decided. I did pretty well for a while.

So, the Lovely Anna P. has hooked me up with her diet plan. Let's face it, who doesn't want to look like Anna P?

2 Proteins
4 Vegetables
3 Fruits
2 Starches
1 (!!!) Dairy
1 Fat
2 LA Lites.

And the book gives you the portions of each.

I don't eat the LA Lites, so I try to supplement with an extra bit of veggies. The first two days I did this I was starving by the time I got home from work. I didn't know how to spread the servings out. I've learned. Seriously, I don't think I can describe this hunger.

But I've learned alot about my eating habits and my food weaknesses.

Weaknesses:

1. Carbs (to include sugar)
2. Dairy

I've always had a sweet tooth, and you may have read about my love of cheese and carbs. The great discovery of Friday, which I told Hotcop and P-har about excitedly, is that one wedge of Laughing Cow cheese is less than half of the amount of cheese I should have in one day-- that leaves enough for me to have milk in my coffee!

Right now, my fridge is packed with veggies. Two kinds of lettuce, carrots in three forms, celery, bean sprouts. I actually busted out the diet book at Farm Fresh on Sunday and at Trader Joe's today to see if certain foods were included in the plan. FIGS! 2 medium! Sugar snap peas! 1 cup!

The saddest part of this is that I have given up Coca-cola. It was like saying goodbye to an old friend. I've had a Coke every day (except for the last week) for... something like the last 10 years. Even when I was in Italy I still drank it. Instead, I drink water (atleast 64 oz, which I've always done), decaf herbal tea (as much as I want!), regular tea (up to 2c a day) and coffee (up to 2c a day). No sugar in the tea, 1 tsp of sugar total in the coffee.

I bought a salad spinner (which I wanted anyway) and those little 1/2 cup Gladware. I keep the measuring cups out so it's convenient to measure out portions. HotCop bought me the weight loss tea (we call it the poo tea).

All things in moderation, they say. I don't do well with moderation. I'm an all or nothing kind of girl, as much as I may hate that aspect of myself.

It sucks. It really does. I miss food because food has been good company in the past. There are Girl Scout Cookies in the house! But I do feel better, I guess. I've learned how to spread out my portions and to not feel so hungry. I don't have the caffeine withdrawal in the middle of the day anymore. I'm getting used to it, I think. I'm cautiously optimistic.

poop

I hate it when people don't pick up after their dogs. Or atleast move it to under a bush or something.

Joe Day.

It's late to post this, but that's never stopped me in the past.



Happy Joe's Birthday!!

afternoon 'aritas

The lime is for St. Patrick's Day.

i flew in to CO yesterday...

and boy are my arms tired!

Seriously, send furniture. Joe's successful attempt at selling everything last year (including the dead cow and the 52") has left his new apartment empty empty. This is in great contrast to my place, however, which has everything jammed into the shared space.

Anyway, it's the weekend o' The Official Celebration of Joe's Birthday. Wish him a good day next Wednesday.

blo-aux pas

Is it wrong to go back and fix typos and missing links in previous posts?

As much as I love proofreading the writing of others, I hate re-reading my stuff, so I don't notice missing or mixed up letters til days or weeks later. I won't even start on the number of comma splices on my blog. But is that wrong? Is it like changing history?

Or is it like fixing a mistake in the next printing of a book?

showered

I'm done being the hostess for a while. Today fellow bridesmaid Susie and I threw a bridal shower for Sara (who picked this dress for her bridesmaids). It's fun to have people you love over to your house, but this was just Sara and a bunch of her friends. I found myself sitting there thinking "Ok, irritating co-worker, stop giggling!"

But I am glad to have done this for my friend. Any I busied myself making a ribbon bouquet (Ctrl F ribbon bouquet). It was a success, and my mom and dad are coming over tomorrow to help me eat the leftovers. Here's a pic of Sara and the bouquet I made, click through for the bigger version.



Games: (not planned by me)
Wedding word scramble
Cranium-eque "draw a picture of a bride with your eyes closed"

To Drink: (planned by me)
Prosecco
French Market Red Berry Lemondae
French Market Lemonade

To Eat: (planned mostly by me)
Cream cheese chilis
Sausage cheese balls
chips
carrots + hummus or southewestern ranch dip
ham biscuits
brown sugar cookies
brownie bites
butter mints

Guests:
Sara
Susie
me
Sara's mom
Sara's sister
other people

huh

It would take many more words than I have in me to type to describe the events which transpired last night. So, I'll sum it up.

Erika
+
HotCop
+
HotCop's irritation at P-har
+
Wine
+
High School in a Glass
+
McFadden's
+
Shots
+
Party at the Neighbors
+
A Blurred Line Between CopTime and RoommateTime
=
A Very Unique Evening.

running around

The past couple weeks have been crazy. I helped HotCop get ready for her Pampered Chef party then helped her clean up from it. I served on a jury last Tuesday then threw my own hostess party last week on Saturday, then drove to Wakefield for a bridal shower on Sunday. I spent this week running around seeing Tom, who was in town on business, finishing up my taxes, selling stuff on Craigslist (anyone in the market for a Coach purse?), doing laundry for the first time in two weeks, and then was too lazy by the end of the week to meet Brad and the Aw-zee for the DJ last night, if they even made it.


HotCop and I were supposed to go look at bridesmaids dresses this morning, but her schedule changed. That got pushed til tomorrow, when I'm also planning to meet fellow bridesmaid Susie so we can plan bridal shower #2, to be hosted at my house next Saturday. This is not HotCop's shower, it's for the girl who picked the yellow dress. So far, no one has RSVP'd. I'm not surprised, however, as the invitations only went out Wednesday.

Plus, it was a shitty week at work with sporadic outages which means my phone rang ten times as much as it usually does, and the customers were 5 times as mad.

Now I'm sitting here with nothing to do and wallowing. Oh, Beatrice, why doesn't anyone want to spend time with me? But if I'm called to go out tonight? Veronica Mars, Jesus Camp and Tivo will probably take precedent.