The first week of January

Well, it's a little bit like how I spent my summer vacation: On Monday morning, I dutifully went downtown to 100 Centre Street to report for Jury Duty and sat quietly for two days fretting that I would be put on a jury and fretting that I would NOT be put on a jury. Not enough time or too much time. I think the way to feel good about the system which I might eventually use is to serve on Jury Duty but nobody really wants to do it. Arnie is to go next week so I've ordered from Netflix a copy of 12 Angry Men and hope that Kate is old enough to be caught up in the dialogue and shifting premises of this movie.

So I sat in jury duty with my fellow . What I call boredome broken up by intermittent Vietnamese meals. I love being down town with the freedom to wander around chinatown without the hordes of tourists. I found the crackers that we all love, puerh tea and other assorted yummies including dumplings. I actually love Vietnamese food and there is a wonderful cheap dump right near the courts.

There was of course no work going on in the courts during the first two days of the first week after the New Year. And I was dismissed on the second day. But as we were being dismissed by one of the court officers, he said, we were holding you for a double homicide down the hall but the preliminary work is taking longer than we thought. DOUBLE HOMICIDE? MURDERERS USING THE SAME BATHROOM? MURDERERS WALKING THE HALLS. That's when you get that it's serious.

So that was the first two days of the week. And on the last day of the week, that would be today, Kate and I left at 7:30 am in sub zero temperatures to go to Hunter College on 94th Street to sit with 1,999 other smarty kids for a competitive exam for places at Hunter High School beginning in the 7th Grade. Kate was excited. I was stressed. Kate was getting herself in the zone and I was beginning to cry. Maybe I was crying tears of relief because I didn't have to take the test which is described in all the Hunter literature as the hardest test you'll ever take.

The test is really an important watershed. It's great practice for Kate and it's already given her a sense of confidence in her own abilities. If she passes, then she has the option to go for the interivew and consider going. I know Arnie will really push for her to go to Hunter if she can and then I can continue my illicit affair with Mr. Bergdorf and Mr. Goodman. Or I could be a grown up and save money for Kate's college so she can go where she wants, and not be forced into going to a bad state school. Hmm, the endless round of choices about growing up or not and making better choices. And she was talking about options this morning so that was another series of Life Lessons that she has internalized.

But then if she doesn't win a place at Hunter, she can just go back to Friends. All round a win/win I think.