Shall I take a poll?

What is a need anyway. you always here people say "I need to do this or blah blah blah." "I really need this dress!" "I need to get my hair done." "I need a car." But do we really need to do anything or have everything? i am taken aback at how some people choose to use this word, need ,even myself ( i feel the same when people use the word friend just having met the person 2 minutes ago or the word hate. hate is just such a mean strong ugly word), anyway...i am guilty of it as well, but i was curious as what good ol´Google had to say about it? so, i decided to look it up.

Need - That which is necessary; a necessary; a requisite; something indispensable

i have used the word plenty of times before, trust me, but i try not to use it too much because what seems to be a neccessity for us isn´t actually. do we really need clothes and shoes. well, maybe in some instances. we all have been told once in our life maybe in school about the 4 basic human needs: shelter, food, health, and safety. without these things we could not survive. one could argue that shoes and clothes would fall under one of those four categories, but i beg to differ. i have seen plenty of people, during my six months here, wearing minimal clothing and no shoes, not even flip flops, walking on scorching hot pavement, rocky gravel filled roads.

anyway, to the next question: how long do you think mayonaise lasts outside of the fridge, in 90 degree weather???? few days, one week, a couple of weeks. Oh nooooo.... a couple of weeks, that is too long, you got to be kidding me right? Nope, folks, actually it lasts way longer than that!! i arrived here in santa rosa the first week in april. Now it is almost the 1st of july (Wow! i will have been here six months on the 19th, not that i´m counting). i bought a jar of mayonaise. the same kind i buy in the states,Helmann´s fat free, lucky me. well, i was told buy one volunteer that he had mayo that lasted him 6 months. this volunteeer had a reputation of being very minimalistic and i wasn´t to keen on the idea of having mayo outside of the fridge any length of time. i use to get wierded out when i went to picnics and the potato salad hadn´t been refridgerated for a couple of hours. How in the world does mayo stay fresh outside of the fridge? this isn´t the north pole. it´s hot outside and about the same temperature resides in my house every single day. i don´t have airconditioning nor a fan to blow on my mayo to keep it cool, so... how can this be? my friend Helman the mayo has written across his back an expiration date 14 June 2005. Today is the 30th of june. i opened it this morning (i wanted to make tuna salad for lunch so i was just checking) and Yep!!! still fresh, tasted fine. no mold. still the same color as when i bought it. sooo, what´s the deal with this expiration date business? i am living proof, mayo does last outside the fridge. mayo will not kill you if you heat it up in the microwave, if my mayo has lasted through this heat for 3 months a little micro zap won´t kill ya. now, don´t let my judgement replace your own, but hey!! just thought i´d let you know. now, i´m not sure if we are told that things expire because they really do.... eventually or because they want us to gobble it all up so we can go buy a new whateveer it is. it may be a little of both. Sooo....

i was entertaining the idea of buying a fridge when i first arrived. i used the phrase, "Uh, uh, i´m not keepin´mayo outa the fridge. i need a fridge!!" (something like that more or less) but, hey what did i know? i actually don´t need a fridge. the onle thing that i can say that actually does need refridgeration is meat. note to self: hot dogs will not last more that 2 days without refridgeration (believe me i tried and it didn´t smell too great, the yellowish green tint wasn´t appetizing either).

then, i start to thinkin´"i don´t want to be closed minded."evertime someone says "I need blah blah" i didn´t want to feel like "what do they know about need. do they realize how good they have it?" so i get to looking up more definitions of this need. and i happened upon one that gives those of us with a broader view on what the word really means some slack:

Need - 2 a : a lack of something requisite, desirable, or useful b : a physiological or psychological requirement for the well-being of an organism

a fridge is useful, it could keep my hot dogs from turning green for atleast a few days. and.... if psychologically i felt that i was going to keel over from salmonela poisoning evertime i ate my mayo that has been fridgeless for three months...i guess buying a fridge wouldn´t be such a bad idea. well, it´s about lunch time and... and my three month mayo is a callin´my name.

Buen Provecho!!!!