I seriously feel like the state of North Carolina is messing with me.
First of all my old town sent me a letter calling me for jury duty practically on the day I move to a different county, and it's for the 13th of August (so, in case you haven't been keeping track, just at the point where my waters could break any minute). Oh, AND, in any case, I'm a resident alien, which is not an American citizen, so why I'm being called for jury duty I do not know. Ugh.
Anyway...
The court's letter had a series of tick boxes for reasons that you could be excused without needing to actually go to the court house and explain yourself to the judge. Not being a citizen wasn't one of them, so I went with what seemed like the easy option; not being a resident of the county. As proof of this they require a driver's licence, which I don't have, so last Monday we went to the NC Department of Motor Vehicles to get a State ID for me. To do this I queued, I smiled nicely at NCDMV employees, I provided the relevant paperworks and proofs, I signed things, I paid $10 and then I posed for what is bound to be a really unflattering photo.
Today I got a letter from the NCDMV saying there was a problem, and that to resolve the issue I needed to supply non-expired immigration paperwork. My Permanent Resident Card doesn't expire until 2019, so I was slightly perplexed by this request as you may imagine.
So I called the number on the NCDMV's letter to ask what they meant, and that number didn't work. Of course. So I called the main number, navigated the automated torture system and, after being kept on hold for half an hour and being bounced around between three different NCDMV employees, I was eventually told that my details had been entered in the wrong place in the computer - So I have to go back and resubmit them! It's their mistake, I didn't do anything wrong, all of my paperwork is in perfect order but I have to go back to their office and start the process from scratch. The really frustrating part is that the NCDMV can see that the right forms were submitted by me, but they can't correct the mistake they made without me going back to their office. Ugh.
Which wouldn't be so problematic if I didn't need to get back to the court by the 6th with a solid reason why I can't sit on the jury, so we really needed the State ID to be ready this week. Ugh.
At this point I called the court clerk's office and explained the situation. There was bemused silence, and then the woman at the other end of the phone line said "Well, just fill out the form and return it". OK, but the tick boxes don't cover two of the three reasons I'm asking to be excused because of, and the third reason I don't have the required proof for. Silence. Should I just write a letter and attach it to the form? Yeah... Do that, yeah.
So I did, my letter says:
Please excuse Jennifer from Jury Duty, because a) she doesn't live in your county, b) she is, like, SO pregnant and c) she is NOT a citizen and is therefore not allowed to bloody well serve on a jury you muppets! UGH!
Ok, I paraphrase slightly but you get the idea. Hopefully that will take care of the jury duty, but I'm not holding my breath on that one.
As for the State ID, at this point I'd be inclined to say bugger it because I don't really need it, but I paid $10 in cold hard cash for the thing (that was another thing - the NCDMV don't take cards, only cash or cheques but they don't tell you that until you go to pay. At which point you are directed a couple of miles up the roud to the nearest bank!); and, ok, it does get a little tedious explaining the permanent resident card every time I want to buy a beer.
Still. Ugh NC, UGH!
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