Why I don't think I'd be selected for a jury.

A couple days ago, I posted a vlog detailing what sessions I am attending at CrimeCon. In the vlog, I mentioned how I have never been summoned for jury duty, and even if I was, I don't think a prosecutor or a defense attorney would want me on the jury!

I used the article 9 Things Lawyers Look For When Picking A Jury to help me write this post! If you read the article, I think it will make this post more meaningful.

Anyhoo...

Being summoned to jury duty is just luck of the draw. But if you get selected as a potential juror for a trial, both attorneys have the ability to strike people from the jury during voir dire. The following paragraph from the article explains it perfectly:

"Attorneys don’t get to pick their jurors. Instead, using a mixture of intense questioning, keen observation, and stereotyping, they get to eliminate people they think would hurt their case. “It’s not like a baseball team where you can choose your team members,” says Jeffrey Frederick, Director of Jury Research Services at the National Legal Research Group and author of Mastering Voir Dire and Jury Selection. “It’s not who I want, it’s who I don’t want. What we try to do is think of what backgrounds, life experiences, cognitive styles, opinions, and values jurors might have that would make them less receptive to our case.” Clues like demographics and personality can improve a lawyer’s chance of predicting a juror’s stance on a verdict by up to 15 percent. Here are a few things lawyers take into consideration when trying to figure you out."

Let's just cut to the chase! I feel like there are several reasons I would be struck during voir dire:

1. I'm well educated. Prosecutors want well educated people on juries but some defense attorneys sometimes do not.

2. I research a lot of true crime and I love Nancy Grace. Seriously, this would probably be the biggest red flag of all!

3. I have had a close family member in jail. The prosecutors may be afraid that would make me empathetic to the defense.

4. I think our prisons need reformed and our sentencing needs to be reformed.

5. I'm against the death penalty and I don't think I would be able to impose that sentence. Thus, I could not be on a death qualified jury.

All this being said, I do think I would make an excellent juror! Here's why:

1. I would take the job seriously and follow all of the rules.

2. I'm a good listener.

3. I'm a good communicator and would be able to deliberate with the other jurors.

4. I'm open-minded. We all have biases, but I feel like I could confront mine and try to be open minded about the situation.

Have you ever been summoned for jury duty? Did you get on a trial?

Would you be a "good" juror?

What things about you would make the prosecution want you on the jury? The defense?

UPDATES!

A couple weeks ago I had some Meg Go Run updates for you. Today, I have some more!

SALT

Not to brag, but ever since giving up added on April 10th, I only added salt to my food ONCE. It was when I had ravioli with parm cheese. I just had to add salt! I almost added it to my Chinese food a couple weeks ago but Paul told me not to. "Baby," he said, "You have to get used to eating your Chinese food without adding all that salt." I actually listened to him and after a few bites, it was okay.

Okay, I add salt to the rim of my margaritas too, but I only have one of those from time to time, so that doesn't count, right?

TAP

You may have noticed my tap classes have disappeared from my Weekly Workout posts. That's because I stopped going to tap and I didn't do the recital. Allow me to explain. It wasn't that I didn't enjoy tap dancing. I did like it. But I was just getting so busy and going to tap at 7:15 and not getting home until after 8:30 was a lot for me. Also, I was getting a little bored at class. Every Wednesday morning when I would wake up, I would feel disappointment knowing that I had to go to tap that evening. How ridiculous! But I would always make myself go. I figured I liked tap, I was just tired, busy, etc. and I would regret it if I didn't go. But after several weeks in a row of not wanting to go, I realized there was no point in continuing. I may try tap again but apparently right now it is not a priority for me.

WE LEFT A CANDLE BURNING IN OUR HOUSE

Don't worry, our house didn't burn down. But I am VERY MAD AT US FOR LETTING THIS HAPPEN! We worry about this ALL THE TIME. How could we let this happen!?

So on Thursday night, Paul and I left the house right after piano lessons and rushed to physical therapy. (Yup, we're both in PT now!) Paul always lights candles for piano lessons in an effort to make sure the house smells smells good... aka, not like cat piss. Well, before we left, he blew out two of the candles but not the one in the music room. And I didn't even think to blow out any candles because I wasn't the one that lit them.

Now, I am not blaming Paul AT ALL. It is both of our faults. I instruct him to light candles, I knew it was lit, I just didn't think to blow it out because I wasn't the one who actively lit it. And also, our routine was messed up. Normally we don't go anywhere after piano lessons, but on this night we rushed out the door.

Normally when we leave the house and are pulling out of the carport, one of us says, "All off?" As in, are all the lights off, candles blown out, etc, etc... But we didn't do it this night or else we would have thought of it. Ugh.

I am so mad we let this happen but also glad everything is okay.

WTF!?

The night before I wrote this post, I jotted down what I wanted to tell you about. Well, I can't for the life of me figure out what the last thing on my list means! 

I am pretty sure it says "ankle", although I spelled it wrong. But what the heck do I have to tell you about in reference to my ankle? I have no ankle injuries... WTF!?

Did you ever accidentally leave a candle burning?
What do you think my note says?

Weekend Wrap Up!

Happy Monday!

I have an in-service day today and tomorrow. Then Wednesday is officially my first day of summer vacation! Here's what we were up to this weekend...

Friday was supposed to start at the butt crack of dawn (4:30), but instead, it started at the butt-butt-butt crack of dawn (3:30). I woke up and couldn't fall back asleep, so around 4:06 I finally just got out of bed. I did a light upper body workout, a deck of cards workout, and then headed to my 7:00 PT appointment.

I finally told my PT about my glute/adductor issues and he thinks it's my SI joint. He gave me a piriformis stretch to do and said all the exercises I'm already doing will help this issue. He also pulled my right leg so he could crack(???) my SI joint. It was weird! It didn't hurt. He thinks that will do the trick but I am of course skeptical. It's my nature. I'm going to go ahead and start researching SI stuff to see if there's any other insight I can gain about my woes.

By the time PT was over, I was so hungry and couldn't wait to eat my chicken and banana on the way to work. Unfortunately, after I peeled my banana, I dropped it between my car seat and the door. "Maybe it will be okay," I ridiculously thought to myself. I stuck my hand down in the crack and pulled out my banana...

I can't unsee what was suck to that banana!!!! I think it's time to vacuum my car!

Work was easy. The students were dismissed at 10:30, and the phys ed teacher took my morning class (long story). I didn't have to teach at all!

I did get a couple nice thank you cards from students. One of them brought tears to my eyes. My friends sometimes ask what teachers like as an end of year gift. I'm here to give you my honest thoughts on what teachers like as gifts.

#1. A thank you card. Whether it's written by the student or the parent, a card from the heart is PRICELESS. Who doesn't love feeling appreciated?

#2. Call or email the school principal or superintendent and let him or her know your good feelings about your child's teacher. It's always good when our superiors know we're doing a fine job!

#3. You can never go wrong with a Dunkin' or Starbucks gift card. Even just $5 is enough for a treat or two! I normally get a couple gift cards each year and Paul and I end up using them when we are on vacation. It is a very nice, inexpensive treat!

Every year on the last day of school, teachers blow bubbles outside as the students are dismissed for their buses.

I spent the whole day looking out over my empty classroom, thinking of how much I will miss waking up early every morning... 

NOT!!!!

That evening was pretty chill. I did vacation planning, worked on a puzzle, and watched a couple Seinfelds with Paul.

Then I watched the live stream of East Pennsboro's graduation. It was so special to see. This group of students were in 1st grade my first year teaching, so I knew a lot of them. I'll be honest... I bawled my eyes out while watching!

For some reason I was not able to sleep in! I woke up at 6:00 and didn't fall back asleep. Finally I got up and did my favorite Saturday morning activities...

1. Drinking coffee

2. Puzzles

3. Blogging

4. Vacation planning

5. Watching CNN

Then I went to the gym to lift. But before I went, I stopped my TJ Maxx to get a new purse! I wanted something "nice casual" but could fit a lot of stuff. Okay, I bought it for CrimeCon!

It's a Baggallini bag that I have been wanting for awhile!

I actually want a smaller one too.

Today was me and my SIL's annual joint piano/violin recital- Opus VI! I am very proud of my students!

(Not all of them could make it. 

I actually have 11 weekly students right now

and am picking up one more this summer!)

Later that evening, I went to a graduation party for one of my past piano students. I started teaching her piano when she was in 1st grade and I think she played until 9th or 10th grade! Now she is off to college! I'm so proud of her!

The graduate!

Her younger sisters, who I still teach piano.

We had a wonderful time visiting, dancing, eating, and celebrating! This student's family is from Nepal, so we ate authentic food and tried to do the authentic dancing along with the family. It is interesting how so many cultures celebrate with food, music, and dancing it's just in different styles. But food, music, and dancing makes everyone happy and feel good, and that certainly crosses all cultural lines!

I was exhausted by the time we got home!

My morning started with an 8.4 mile hike on the AT with my SIL, Debby! We jibber jabbered the whole time and solved all the problems of the world. It was so green!

I love my SIL. Debby is a WONDERFUL person and I'm so glad she is part of our family!

Not to brag, but when I got home, I began SPRING CLEANING. I started with the guest room, which is where I keep all of my clothes, weights, and spin bike. 

I cleaned every nook and cranny of that room. I even cleaned the closet and went through all my clothes and threw out stuff that was gross and made a bag of things to donate.

I keep my medals behind my clothes!

I also threw out the shoelaces I wore during my first Boston Marathon. They were hanging on a hook in my closet and I never like, look at them or anything. So I figured, eh, I don't need them and pitched them.

Here's little baby Jelly!

Is your car clean enough that you could drop a banana on the floor and still be able to eat it?

Any other good ideas for an end of year teacher gift?

Did you get outside this weekend?

Do you save shoelaces from races?

Vlog: CrimeCon!

I leave for CrimeCon on Friday! In today's Vlog, I'm going to talk about the different sessions I am going to attend at this three day event!

Are there any true crime cases that really interest you?
Which of these sessions would you most like to attend?
What do you think of Nancy Grace?

Weekly Workouts

I ran... 7.5 miles
I arc trained... twice
I did 5 deck of cards workouts
I lifted... twice

The good news is a got some answers from my PT! Skip down to Friday to read about that!

Saturday- 4 miles & deck of cards workout. I tested out the old legs. After a week of no running, I was hoping my PIMAs were gone. I stopped after 4 miles because my adductor started to hurt. EFFFF!!!!! I finished up with a deck of cards workout that was so intense! 

I ended up doing...

99 burpees

99 mountain climbers

198 bicycle crunches

990 jump rope rotations

2 60 second planks

It took me 26 minutes with no rest time.

Sunday- 50 minute Arc Trainer. The arc trainer is definitely boring. I wish I could do it outside!

Monday- Two deck of cards workouts! I did the exact same one as Saturday, and it took me 24 minutes and 10 seconds. Then I did another DOC workout but instead of burpees I did push ups and instead of bicycles I did sit ups. It took me 24 minutes and 8 seconds. I took about a 2 minute break in between each workout but other than that NO BREAKS.

Tuesday- Lifting upper body @ home. I did more normal chest/back exercises but at lower weights. I couldn't do tricep tips because I was too sore from all the push ups I did yesterday! So why was I able to do 50 push ups today but zero tricep dips? Oh well, my body is falling apart and I am just rolling with it!

LOOK AT DAT BABY WHO STOLE MY TOWL!!!!

Wednesday- 50 minutes on the arc trainer & PT. At first, I had lots of energy at PT, but then when I got to the exercises that needed my arms, I was so weak and could barely do them. I was still sore from my double deck of cards on Monday and lifting on Tuesday. Ugh.

Thursday- 3.5 miles & deck of cards workout. I was testing out the 'ol glute/groin and it didn't go so hot so I finished with deck of cards.

Friday- Lifting upper body @ home, deck of cards, and PT appt. I did lighter weights again and then my normal doc workout. 

At PT, I told my therapist about my glute and adductor pain. He thinks it is the SI joint so he showed me a piriformis stretch and also pulled my right leg so that my SI joint cracked or something. Not sure of the exact term. (It did NOT hurt.) He thinks that'll do it! I'm skeptical, but hey, who knows?

I already googled some SI stretches and noticed I probably shouldn't be doing sit ups or jump rope until this calms down! My PT told me to take it easy today and try running Sunday. I'm actually hiking on Sunday so I will try running Monday and see what's up. Today, I have a date with the arc trainer.

Did you ever having someone crack your SI joint?
Any insights?

Searching for answers....

A few weeks ago, I suddenly started getting glute/groin pain around Mile 3 of my runs. I took a couple days off running, tried again, and the same pain would pop up around Mile 3-4. Then I took a week off running and tried again. Pain came around Mile 3-4 like clockwork. How freaking FRUSTRATING!!!

This past Thursday, I decided that taking a break from running was not helping my groin/glute pain, so I needed to try something else. To be honest, my butt has been feeling a little jacked up first thing in the morning, so I thought I’d be diligent about warming up before my run and see if that helped anything.

Thursday morning, I foam rolled, did some glute activation exercises, and even walked for twelve minutes. Then off I went for a run...

What do you know? At Mile 3 I felt an “awareness” in my groin. I stopped a half mile after that because the pain was definitely there.

**Note: This is not debilitating pain I wouldn’t be able to run through. However, you all know I DON’T RUN THROUGH PAIN because I don’t want it to get worse or sideline me for longer than it would have if I had just taken it easy.**

Mentally, I had prepared to not be able to run 4 miles. I already had my jump rope, towel, water, and deck of cards laying out in my driveway so I could bang out a deck of cards workout to finish up my exercise for the day. Oddly, jumping ripe, burpees, and mountain climbers do not bother my groin at all. In fact, my groin and butt stopped hurting right after I stopped running…

… but then when I sat at my desk at work an hour later, my groin and butt pain came back.

I thought it was weird my glute and groin pain were happening at the same time, so I Googled “are glute and groin pain related?” (I know you’re not supposed to Google our symptoms. The last time I Googled symptoms I ended up racing to Urgent Care, convinced I had a blood clot.)

A lot of stuff came up for piriformis and sciatica problems… But I don’t get pain radiating down the back of my leg or anything. I just get groin pain at Mile 3 and then ass pain throughout the day. I do feel a little jacked up in the morning.

What do you all think!!?? I’m gonna ask my PT about it.

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PT update.

On Friday morning, I had my one month PT evaluation. I will be honest, I just wanted to be done with PT. It's not that I don't think it's helping, it's just that it is expensive and very time consuming. However, I am thankful that even though it makes me very busy, I do have time to squeeze in appointments. I am also thankful that even though it is expensive, my insurance does cover all but the copay, I can afford it.

The bottom line is that there is always a sacrifice to be made when we're trying to improve our bodies and become healthier. Usually time is involved and sometimes money is involved too. For now, I am able to and willing to invest the time and money. But I'm not sure how much longer because I am not seeing huge improvements with my nerve and knee.

A couple weeks ago I posted a vlog explaining all the PT exercises I do. I am still doing those exact exercises and the only advancement in them is that I now use an 8lb kettle bell when doing Turkish get ups. I actually think it's easier doing that exercise with the added resistance rather than trying to balance a piece of styrofoam on my hand!

Other things that happen at PT are the taping of my knee (although they haven't done that in awhile because my knee has been feeling good as long as I don't do something stupid like get on my spin bike) and Graston. I'm not sure if the Graston helps but it doesn't hurt so I let them do it.

The first thing I did at my evaluation was have a chat with my PT about where I think I'm at right now. I originally went to PT for a pinched nerve which was causing numbness on the outside of my left leg right below my knee. I also told him about my ITB/weak knee problems and my PT thinks they are both related. 

I began PT 3 times a week and on my off days I did the exercises at home. Almost immediately, my angered nerve calmed down. It is not "better" but it is better than it was before and is not getting worse.

My knee problems felt fine until we tried incorporating squats and lunges. Then it got angered, which is normal... which is why I don't do squats and lunges anymore. But I WANT to do them, and my PT thinks I should be able to do them. But since they bothered my knee, he took them out of my routine and said we need to get my other muscles activated more so that I can do those exercises without being in pain later in the day.

After about 3 weeks of PT and a little less running than normal, my right leg suddenly felt jacked up one day. Like, really jacked up. I wasn't even able to pinpoint what part of my leg hurt because it was basically everywhere. Later on things settled and I realized I had a PIMA #1 (pain in my ass) and PIMA #2 (pain in my adductor... near my groin). I have had both of these problems before (but not at the same time) and taking 3-4 days off running normally made them go away. 

I wasn't sure why the PIMAs popped up so severely as I was barely running. My thought was that maybe my PT exercises that I do for my glutes aggravated it. So for my 4th week of PT, I only did the glute exercises when I was actually at PT and I did the back, ankle, core stuff every day at home. I also stopped running for a week and the PIMAs got a lot better. But then I tried running and they popped up like normal at mile three. So I am currently on week two of no running.

My therapist thinks I should continue PT for a little longer because he wants me to be squatting and lunging again. I will be honest, I am skeptical of ever being able to squat and lunge without feeling that pulsating weak feeling later on in the day. The reason I am skeptical is because EVERY SINGLE TIME I have tried to make my knee better, it has not worked. I am out of ideas. This has been going on for so long that it's hard for me to believe 4-8 weeks of PT would really help it. I mean, obviously I'm willing to try it, but I still don't know. I certainly WANT it to help...

As far as my nerve, it is not getting any worse and it did get better since starting PT, so I feel good about that. My PT says nerves can take a long time to heal. I feel more confident now that it is on the mend and that doing activity isn't going to hurt it. In fact all the stuff I'm doing for my knee/ITB is supposedly supposed to help my nerve too, so I'm being proactive.

The good news is I am stronger and more flexible in ALL of my evaluations. They did all the tests on me they did during my initial eval and I have improved on everything- some things significantly. Like my ankle mobility.

So I'm going to continue going to PT 2 times per week for a little while longer and we'll see how things go...

Sorry, this got a little long and I'm sure I overlooked something I was supposed to tell you! So if you're confused about anything or I left anything out, just ask!

Have you ever been skeptical about getting "better" when your woes are something you have dealt with for so long?