Jury Duty

So I was summoned for jury duty yesterday. Downtown scares me a lot so we drove around on Sunday (and got terribly lost) to prepare me. So I was a little nervous. Yesterday I left our apartment at 7:00am, dropped the kids off, went downtown and parked, went to the wrong building and finally showed up at the right place at 8:25, 5 minutes before I was supposed to report! I figured out a few things-you can cross the road anywhere as long as there is a group of you, the people walking around downtown Pittsburgh are so nice and helpful and it was a lot cleaner than I thought it would be. The courthouse is amazing. I did not have a camera with me so I found these pictures online, but this is what I saw.

This one was taken in the winter. It is the courtyard of the building.

 

 This is the aerial view. It was built in 1884 and was so cool!

 Not all of the building was this nice-just the second floor on one end. The rest of it was just like an really old city office building

This is the whole downtown.

I am so glad that I had a friend to watch my kids. I was there all day and did not worry about them. They had a daycare available, but that was not my first choice. I forgot a book to read so I was bored out of my mind. I am also really glad that I was not picked to be on the jury (they found out they did not want me really fast! :) because it was a rape-homicide and just the thought of it made me sick.  When I left the building I walked completely the wrong direction for a few blocks and eventually went in the wrong parking garage. So after asking a lot of people where to go (some were more knowledgeable than others-but they were all nice) I finally got to my car and was able to find my way out without getting lost (the streets are all one way and GPS's don't work because the buildings are too tall). So the buildings downtown were amazing and huge and I think I will explore downtown sometime with Clifton (before I said it was too scary), but I know someday I want to live in a town with a smaller downtown area. :)