You Mean the Fizzy Drink, Right?

In school it becomes inevitable that you will refer to other people by some distinguishing trait simply because you don't know their actual name. Something like "Blue Hair Boy", "Girl With The Really Annoying Laugh", or "Guy That Only Sneezes In Multiples Of Threes". These names can sometimes border on cruel but you know that they probably call you "Girl With Hairy Arms" so you let the guilt slide. One day, just as one of my classes was starting, a girl turned around and told me to "Please be quiet, I'm trying to listen" when I was explaining something to my Korean friend who doesn't always understand english. I immediately took offense because her tone was pretty condescending, but looking back probably would've thought she was a bitch no matter which way she delivered that line. Seeing as I can be a little sensitive and defensive, I now refer to her as "Stupid Cow Girl That Told Me To Shut Up".

Today I was sitting in that same class with a friend that I'm going to call J. Me and J were talking when "SCG" (Stupid Cow Girl for short) came and sat near us. I figured she wanted to tell me to be quiet again, but suprsisingly she knew J. From their small talk I gathered that J and "SCG" knew each other because they were from the same small town. "SCG" was asking J if she would be going home for the summer, if she'd be working at the bar, and so on. The conversation went back and forth for a while when "SCG" started to talk about what she'd done last summer.

"Yeah I was working at the bar making really amazing tips, you should totally work there. You can make like $150 a night so it's pretty good. All I did last summer was party, and make good money. I did so much coke, but yeah, you should totally apply."

J and I both kinda smiled and nodded and then class started. I was sitting there and trying to act natural but in my head I was thinking "WHAT THE FUCK! DID SHE JUST SAY "I DID SO MUCH COKE?!" She was just so nonchalont about it; kind of like tieing her shoes and snorting lines elicited the same response. Then I started to tell myself that nobody would talk about doing coke like that within hearing distance of twenty people, so she must have meant Coca Cola. For someone who was shocked by Kareoke, blasé mention of doing coke induced an exponentially larger trauma. It then occured to me that I had no idea if J was a coke head, and maybe that was the only reason "SCG" decided to mention it anyway. When I got out of class I looked at J and we both started blurting out indecipherable rants to the effect of "WTF?!". Turns out I wasn't alone in my dismay, and "SCG" wasn't talking about pop.

After two buses and a skytrain ride I had had some time to let the shock wear off. As I was walked home I passed an old man pumping the Cantonese tunes as he washed his car, and somehow that comforted me. Atleast, among all the craziness and coke there are oblivious old men that restore my belief in the innocence left in this world.