A Hummer. Really? A Hummer?

So, I went out to lunch with some co-workers the other day, and we invited the new administrative assistant temp. She's just filling in while someone's out on maternity leave.

So, she's an older woman; in her 50's maybe?And she complains a lot about her husband being forced to retire before they were ready, and the financial woes that has caused. Every time there is a holiday she mentions 6 or 7 times that she is grateful for the time off, but it's an unpaid holiday for her. And, she's over 50 and she's working as a temp. I get it, money's tight.

So, motivated by class-guilt, pity, or genuine concern about another human being and their predicament (I really don't know), I said, "Hey, let me buy you lunch." Rationalized by the fact that she doesn't know where we're going, and just doesn't want to turn down an invitation to hang out with the crew.

So, we take her car, which is a new SUV, and I get railroaded into driving because I "know where we're going." (That's bullshit! I want to be able to relax on a full belly for the ride back to work too.) But, I drive.

So, we lunch, and the whole time I'm thinking about her wallet and and all of the times that I ended up spending more on a meal than I was comfortable with, but too embarrassed or humiliated to do anything other than pretend I was cool with it, because I was with a group of people that I liked.

So, I said, "Hey Gertrude, can I buy you lunch?" She said yes, and I said, "Welcome to the department."

So, on the way back to her suv after lunch I have the keys, and I'm trying to hit the button to unlock the doors as we walk up to the car. She looks at me and says, "No, that's for the Hummer, this is for my car."

"Hummer?"

"Yeah, my other car is a Hummer, but we bought this one because the commute is so long, and it just didn't make sense with such terrible gas mileage."

"Are you serious? Yeah? What kind of gas mileage are you talking about."

"The Hummer only gets about 15 mpg, so we bought this one for my commute."

"Huh." is what I said, "Bitch! Give me my $16 dollars back!!" Is what I thought.

No more presumptuous care-taking for me. But, I'm not being hard on myself; just two weeks ago I was raised poor. So, more gaffes to come from the middle-class black woman who recently decided that it was okay to be upwardly mobile.

I don't know how it looks from the outside, but from the inside of my face now it feels like I'm glaring at her every time she complains about unpaid time off.

"My car desperately needs an oil change, lady! Howbout that!! Show some fucking consideration!!"

Even though I'm new to this middle-class thing, I can still tell that that would be inappropriate to say.