So, how was your week?

The highlight of our week was supposed to be me being on Jury Duty. Back in the summer, after five and a half years of officially living in Ocean City, I got a notice that I was being summoned to Jury Duty in Cape May County. Now, through the years, I’d been called to Jury Duty many times, both in Queens and in Nassau Counties, so the concept was familiar to me. I went online and filled out a questionnaire, and because we had family coming on the original date, I asked that it be put off till September. My request was approved, and my Jury Duty was rescheduled to the week of Monday, September 18, 2023. Like many places, my service was to be for at least one week or one case if I was selected as a juror, and starting on Sunday night, September 17th, I was to start calling in to get my status for the next day.

Last week I started preparing for my Jury Duty service. I scoped out the Cape May County Court website for Juror information, including where to park, what the hours were, and the dress code. Last Wednesday, Susie and I took a ride down to Cape May Courthouse (a town in Cape May County, which is the County Seat) to see how long it would take (30 minutes), and what the parking lots looked like. As a bonus, we hit the Arby’s in Cape May Courthouse and had a couple of their Gyros, which we liked very much! As the weekend approached, I was all ready to go. Would I find out on Sunday when I called that I had to be there on Monday, or would I be excused for a day or two, and perhaps be called on Wednesday, or not be needed at all? The whole week was blocked off because of the uncertainty of my situation.

And that was the case until I got the following email late in the day on Friday, September 15:

“Thank you for your availability to serve as a petit juror in Cape May County the week beginning September 18, 2023.

Your service is no longer required. You are released for the week and your service is deemed complete. Please report to your place of employment or follow your normal routine. This satisfies your jury service requirement for a period of (3) years.

The Judges and Jury Management Office would like to thank you for your time and availability.”

And just like that, Susie and I had our week back! Also, as you may note, it said that I’d satisfied my jury duty requirement for a period of 3 years. That means that the next time I might be called for Jury Duty was when I was 76 years old, and since Jury Service in New Jersey is optional after 75, I’ve in essence served my first and only Jury Duty in Cape May County. Now, we’ve just got to hope Susie dodges the bullet! So what, you may ask, did we do with our suddenly free week? Well among other things (grocery shopping, a trip to Walmart, pedicures, for both of us) , at the age of 71 and 73, Mrs. D’Elia and I got our first tattoos!

We’d been kicking around the idea of getting a Martini Glass tattoo on our right wrist for a couple of months. I really don’t remember where the idea came from, but we had a couple design ideas. Susie had done some research, but we just hadn’t worked up the nerve yet. On Tuesday, after Susie got back in the car after her pedicure, she looked at me and said, “Want to go to the Tattoo place?” The “Tattoo place” Susie was referring to was Hidden Cove Tattoo, on Route 9 in Somers Point, right next to Hot Bagels and More. “Sure,” I said, and off we went.

We met with Nes, one of their Tattoo Artists, explained what we had in mind, showed him the designs we liked, he told us what to expect, and then he said, “Well, we can do it right now, if you’d like.” Susie and I looked at each other, nodded, and said, “Sure. Let’s do it!” Nes then gave us some paperwork to fill out while he worked up our design. When we approved the design, he reproduced it in three sizes so we could figure out exactly what we wanted the finished project to look like. Then it was time to get into the studio, with Susie going first and me tagging along.

The whole place was very clean and Nes was super professional, and went the extra mile to make sure we were confortable. The actual process took very little time (Susie timed mine at 5 minutes) and in almost no time at all, we both had our first tattoos. Of course, we didn’t get a huge or extensive tattoo like our son Billy has, but I think I’d be safe to say that the anticipation was much worse than the actual act of getting the tattoo! So what did it feel like? Kind of like the “electric shock” you got when squeezing the handle on one of those “Test Your Strength” arcade machines back when I was a kid. More of a tickling vibration than pain. They are under a clear bandage right now, with it’s full debut scheduled for this Sunday!

And that’s how our week went…..