Goddammit, I Forgot The Tomatoes

My parents taught me about how they wanted me to store the tomatoes.  For fuck's sake, they laid out the tomatoes on the kitchen counter.  All they asked me to do was put the tomatoes tightly in the plastic bags and throw them in the freezer -- Sunday, Father asked me.

And you know, I totally forgot.  It was hiding from me in plain sight.  Or, to be more frank, it was very easy for me to overlook.  Because they were not my tomatoes.  They were my parents', and I didn't care.  So Sunday passed, then Monday, then on Tuesday evening I finally walked into the kitchen, where I noticed the business end of the tomatoes.  One of them had some dark spots on its skin.  Another, a shrimpy one, was shrimpy because it started to shrivel and get all black.  And that's when I realized, Hey, maybe I should've put them in the bags already.

Hey, this screaming fit from this guy at work has really messed me up.  That was all I was thinking about on my supposed relaxing "holiday."  And while I was worried about how work will be (update: He actually said, "Here you go" to me today.  We're besties again!!!  <wanking motion>), the tomatoes were sitting on the counter dying.  Shit, I don't know how to take care of vegetables.  But, I do know that they told me to pack them Sunday.  Which I didn't do.

I dropped everything to do this, but it was largely a lost cause.  Of the, oh, two dozen tomatoes they laid out for me, I think half were so rotten that I had to toss them.  I really don't think there is one in the bunch that is truly good -- maybe one of the smaller ones, but that's it.  I decided that 13 of them could be thrown into the freezer, but all of them have some discoloration.  For all I know, mold is growing in all of those things, and I'm freezing bad tomatoes for no good goddamn reason.

I am just angry with myself that I failed to do a simple task that my folks begged me to do.  And it was right out there, in plain sight, for me to see, but I was so inside my own head that I couldn't notice that beyond my troubles, the tomatoes were going to rot.  And now it's too late.

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During the storms a couple days ago an unripened tomato fell to the ground.  I picked it up, and even though I have no idea if it can ripen, I've taken it inside, soaked it in water, putting it in a colander to dry and redden and, hopefully, stash in the freezer.  I want to make up for what I didn't do on this one tomato.  It'll be my Redemption Tomato.  And I hope I don't fuck this up again.