Excuse Me Good Sir: The Story of Two Girls and a Car Named Stevie.

The year was 2008.

Speeding down the windy New England back roads, listening to Motion City Soundtrack blare on the stereo, Steph and I were doing as we always did when we suddenly saw smoke coming from behind a house. Without hesitation, she said as we drove by the house, "Excuse me good sir, I think your house is on fire".

And so it began.

"Excuse me, good sir."

This is the phrase that has endured for the past two years of our friendship.

So now, we drive down the street and say, "Excuse me good sir, you're ugly", or "Excuse me good sir, you just cut me off." It's our way of politely, but vocally, judging people. We pretty much say it for everything. It's our own personal catch phrase. Whether we're talking to a man or a woman doesn't matter. It's a universally applicable statement.

I thought of the beginning of that phrase as I waited for Steph to come over to keep me company on Wednesday night. I thought of how it caught on and became such an important element of our daily language. I guess everyone has something that they say with their friends. Over the past year, it's been adding .com to the end of a phrase, or loling all over the place. It's the John Foley call, or using an exaggerated Chicaaaaago aaaaccent. We all have things that we say that distinguish our relationships from one another.

I realized, as I sat here, that I haven't said "Excuse me, good sir" in a long time. It's probably because Steph and I haven't really driven around judging people very much in the past year. We won't be doing that very often anymore, either. But hey, when it's time to change, you've got to rearrange, right?

So, the lesson of today is as follows: you can lose your accent. You can stop using your colloquialisms (i.e. wicked). You can leave the place that you thought would always be home. But don't ever forget the things you used to say, the songs you used to sing, and the roads you used to drive. And remember, it doesn't matter if it's a man or a women, always be polite when being cruel, and say, "Excuse me good sir, you've had one too many big macs".

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