Last week, I was standing in line at Target with tampons and sour cream (for two different reasons I swear) and this really obnoxious conversation was going on behind me. This group of girls from Arizona, as I gathered from the assortment of ASU stickers across their bags, key chains, and sweatshirts, were really excitedly taking Snapchats and having a group speaker phone conversation with another friend back home. Now, I know what you’re thinking, why am I reading about a pretty normal conversation that a group of girls were having at Target?

Well, I’ll tell you why. Because this group of girls kept saying Cali over and over and over again. Cali. Seriously, they kept on saying it like California but not!

“Everyone wave say Cali!”

“We’re in a Cali Target right now!”

“OMG is the Cali weather beautiful?”

“I’ve never been but I know I love Cali!”

Honestly, it was really quite irritating and it left me with a really bad metaphorical taste in my mouth. If you are from California, you probably get the same feeling that I do. If you aren’t, let me explain it to you.

Say you have a friend that you met in high school and they have a mom named Sharon Smith (I made that name up so sorry if it is your name or someone you knows’). Chances are, when you met the parent they say “Call me Sharon” but we all know that it isn’t that easy. You probably call her Ms. Smith, Mrs. Smith, so-and-so’s mom, or even Ms. Sharon to get that first name in there but still be respectful. What you probably do not do (until you are really really close with this friends family) is just call her Sharon.

And you especially don’t go around calling her Shar or Ron. You don’t walk into her living room, put your feet up on her coffee table, and say “Hey Shar, how’s it going?” You don’t get out of the car after she drives you and some friends to the movies and say “Thanks for the ride, Shar.”

It doesn’t work like that. It just doesn’t.

So why would you do around calling California “Cali”? Why is that a thing? Especially when there are already super easy and accepted alternatives like “SoCal” and “NorCal”. Perfectly reasonably and concise terms because you do not want to tell someone back home that you are in Cali and have them imagine some Malibu beach scene, when in reality you are shivering in the fog of San Francisco. So Cali? Really not necessary.

What would some Arizonian think if we went around saying things that are just as stupid?

“Beautiful views from the Grand Canyon in Zona!”

“Loving that Ariz heat.”

And that goes for every state!

“Horseback riding in Tana.”

“Fantastic Memphis BBQ in Tennes.”

“Can’t wait to come back to Rhode sometime in the future!”

“Rado, you are truly spectacular!”

Does that leave a bad taste in your mouth or make you cringe a little bit? I hope so, because maybe then you will understand just how terrible this “Cali” thing really is.