I made a major fair food mistake yesterday afternoon. I was running around like crazy, trying, yet again, to be three different places at once, and I knew it was eat now, or forget it.

So I hastily grabbed a slice of pizza from a stand near the grandstand. After all, how can you go wrong with pizza, right?

Unfortunately, this pizza was just wrong.

First, unable to choose between pepperoni and mushroom, I paid more for pepperoni AND mushroom. Big mistake. There were a few measly slices of pepperoni and even less mushrooms — two minuscule slivers.

Second, the pizza was cold. Now cold pizza is OK when you want cold pizza (like when you’re up raiding the fridge for a midnight snack). But when you know it’s the one piece of food that will cross your lips for many, many hours to come, heat is essential! Had I been home I would have definitely been nuking this.

Not to mention, I’d have either doused it in hot sauce or dipped it in ranch dressing if I’d had either handy.

I learned my fair food lesson. Take my time! It’s worth actually checking out how the food looks. And anything that’s sitting out (and not cooked in front of me) is probably a risk.