Distractions

I’m writing these words sitting in the Los Angeles Superior Court Jury Assembly room. It’s my first time, and I have to say that I’m actually kind of excited. Ot at least I was when they gave us the orientation about what the day would entail. Today I am an active participant in our judicial system.

Little did I know that being an “active participant” would entail sitting in a large room with a hundred or so slightly smelly individuals, all of us waiting to have our named called. Down time like this makes me anxious.

Today was supposed to be a writing day. Even heading in here this morning I figured I could use any sitting-around time to get some writing done, but I’m finding this environment very distracting.

There’s a guy in the back who keeps singing operas in a strange falsetto voice. Every half hour or so there are announcements from the people running the show. Every person in the room has a newspaper or lap top and the rustling and tapping of keyboards around me seem much louder than they really should be.

I don’t think of myself as easily distracted, but what I’m realizing is that I’m just used to the distractions I deal with regularly. I can handle constant inquires from my daughter without hardly slowing my typing at all. I can suspend the narrative in my head for as long as ten or fifteen minutes should my guy call to say hello. These are the bits of my life that I have managed to integrate into how I write.

The opera singing hipster in the back is not.

So I’m trying hard to focus. I am pushing myself to put in the extra effort. I read and re-read pages and do seem to be making slow progress with minor tweaks here and there. By the end of the day I will know if I am assigned to a case and have to come back tomorrow. I’m hoping not. If so, you better believe that tomorrow I will arrive with ear plugs in my pocket. Even if I only get to write during my lunch break, it’ll be a more productive day than this one.