While I was getting dressed, ******e and I made small talk. I told her I was going to hang out in her neighborhood for a bit and get something to eat, such as the hummus place a few blocks away.
"Hummus?" ******e said. "Hey, I've got some hummus. Let me give you some!"
"Oh, you have hummus ... ?" And I wondered if she heard me when I said that I was going to hang out in the area for a bit. But she gave me this unopened dish of hummus, and I wondered whether she heard me. Because hummus, I heard, has to be refrigerated. I was going to throw this dish in my car. And I intended to go to a coffeehouse and work on my receipts until I was done, which was going to be more than two hours, which I heard is the maximum time period when food that has to be refrigerated can be left out at room temperature.
I hate wasting food, especially when it's given to me for free. But I planned on working on some things, and that would take time. And I didn't want to get through my tasks quickly in order to get back in my car, drive home and throw that dish of hummus in the fridge under two hours. So I just did my thing -- I went to the coffeehouse (well, I went next door to Bebe Zito to get a honey chicken tenders basket) and worked on my receipts, and it took me more than two hours to do it. And I checked the Internet just in case I was wrong about the time, or if somehow hummus doesn't need to be refrigerated. Nope, it had to be refrigerated, and since it was in my car for at least two hours by the time I got done, bad bacteria was growing all through the dish like nobody's business.
There was only one thing to do. On my way home, I went to a gas station close to my house and threw it away. Again, I hate wasting food, but if the USDA (at least the one before this god-awful Republican administration) is right, it's not safe to eat after two hours. I just wished ******e understood that the hummus she gave me would spoil and maybe she shouldn't have given it to me. Or, maybe I should have said something.
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