It's time again for my New York City Hipster snapshot of the week:

What Do You Do? — Galapagos, Williamsburg, Oct. 21, 2002

"So, Ben, Aimee tells me you live in Phoenix?"
"Yep."
"That's so cool."
"It's alright."
"Hmm, yeah, I have a cousin there I think. In Tucson? He's in college there I think?"
"Oh yeah. That's sounds about right."
"Really? I bet it's really nice there, I mean, with all the mountains and stuff."
"Yeah, definitely. It's pretty rad."
Ben is a high school friend of mine from Phoenix. He's out visiting the city for a week for the first time and I took him to Galapagos so he could get his hipster fix out of the way in one night. He's more of a — shall we say — unassuming heartland type of guy (leather jacket, earrings) so any grumbling about hipsters doesn't really register with him. There, amid the sticky floors and skull-rattling speakers we ran into Genessee. She's from Long Island; she was drinking a Mohito and complaining that the mint wasn't fresh. A friend of mine, Laura, once stayed with Genessee in some shithole apartment in Greenpoint for three months and when a bunch of Genessee's underwear went missing she rifled through Laura's phone list and called me because she "didn't want to point fingers." When I asked her what made her think I knew anything about the missing underwear she said: "You're so honest. That's so awesome."
So that's how I know Genessee.
"That's such a great expression — rad — isn't it?" said Genessee.
"I guess so," said Ben.
"I think I'll have to start using that one again. Oh, wait! What about 'gnarly'? That’s a good one too! Oh, Shit! What about 'wicked,' I looooved 'wicked'!" she said. "You're so funny!"
Ben looked at me, questioning. I shrugged.
"Goddamn this fucking Mohito!" she said, now holding the glass up to Ben's face and gesturing toward the bar. "Did it come out of a fucking can or something? Jee-sus!"
"It looks okay to me," said Ben.
"Well, you don't drink Mohitos every single day either," she said, taking a drink. "Look, I'm sorry guys. It's just so frustrating sometimes, you know? It's just so fucking frustrating. Christ! I must sound like such an idiot to you, I mean do they even have Mohitos in Santa Fe?"
"Actually it's Phoenix," Ben said.
"Oh, fuck! Well you should move there then, because Mohitos are sooo fucking good — especially when they have fresh mint — instead of this fucking syrup."
"Yeah?" said Ben.
"Oh, completely. So, Ben," she said, slinking toward him, lightly clutching the lapel of his leather jacket. "What is it that you do out in Colorado?"
"It's Arizona,"
"Whatever."
"I work at CVS."
"Oh, wow," she said, visibly taken aback. "That must be really interesting."
"Not really. I basically book orders all day."
"But on that kind of scale … I mean, it's one of the oldest and most well-respected networks in the world."
"Oh, I dunno. I never even read the employee handbook. I just started there a few months ago."
"That's just great. So, what's the latest news in New Mexico?"
"Umm, well. Not much really. We're giving a lot of allergy advice right now."
"Oh totally. I was just watching something, I think it was on CNN — sorry — it was all about prescription drug prices and how the president doesn't care about them and how all the old people can't afford to buy their arthritis medication. It's really horrible."
"Oh yeah? That sucks. Last week I had to call the cops because a junky tried to get some Oxy-Contin with a bogus prescription. That was some crazy shit. They fuckin' arrested his ass right there on the floor. We had to close early."
"Well, you know what they say: If it bleeds, it leads, right? No really though, it sounds like you guys are like really progressive and working in the community and everything?"
"We basically just keep everybody nice and medicated so they won't rip each other's heads off."
"Yeah, totally. I took this — well actually I dropped out after one lecture because the fucking professor was totally groping me — but I started to take this class at NYU last year all about how the media is like totally a medication these days."
"Yeah. We don't sell TVs yet. But I think we're supposed to expand and get an electronics section pretty soon. We sell camera film and shit though."
"Totally. Did you know Orson Welles started out there?"
"No shit?"
"Yeah, totally."
"Rad," Ben said.
"You are sooo fuckin' funny!" she said again, throwing her arm around Ben.
"Thanks," he said.
"So you must totally know everything about what's going on with the War On Terror and shit," she said elbowing him jokingly. "Gimme the scoop Mac!"
"Actually I try to never watch the news, I think it's total bullshit," he said.
"I know exactly what you mean. I used to work at this restaurant and I totally could not eat there. It wasn't like the food was all nasty and shit or anything. I don't know why, but I just could not eat it. It's weird huh?"
"Yeah, I guess," Ben said.
"You know, I could totally see you on the news. You've got that face, you know, kinda like Dan Brokaw."
"Really?"
"Oh yeah. What's your full name?"
"Ben Jensen," he said.
"Oh totally!" she said holding her Mohito up like a microphone. "Ben Jensen reporting. Now back to you Tom!' So are you a reporter, or what?"
"What?" Ben said.
"You, know 'breaking Evening News' and all that."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, like do you work with Hugh Rather on 20/20 or with that Rooney guy, or something?"
"What?"
"Sorry," she said. "I know you're on vacation. You probably don't want to talk about work, but what's your job title?"
"OOOOOH, shit!" Ben said. "You completely got the wrong idea. I work at SEE-VEE-ESS — the Pharmacy — I stalk shelves."
"What?" she said.
"Yeah. C-V-S, not C-B-S"
"OOOOOH! shit!" she said, dragging her heavy arm from off Ben's leather-clad shoulder. "I totally thought you worked at SEE-BEE-ESS, the news station," she said. "Sorry."
"No, no, no," said Ben. "I fucking wish."
"Well, hum," she said. "It must be, like, really interesting to work for C-V-S too."
"Not really," Ben said.
"Oh, shit!" she said. "I just totally saw my friend over there. I gotta go say hey, but it was really nice meeting you Jim! Byeee!"
"It's Ben."
"Whatever."