Considering Cheers

So yesterday I headed down in to the subway and two confused looking dudes came up to me and asked me where the Number 2 train platform was. They were Australian tourists or something. I told them where the platform was and the guy said, 'Thanks mate. Cheers.' (And he pronounced 'cheers' in that quick australian way where the whole word is like mushed or something. cheirz. or something.)

Anyway, I walked along (heading to the same platform as them) and thought that 'Cheers!' sounded really cool. Cheers. 'Thanks! Cheers!' or just 'Cheers, man'. I started to dabble with the idea of incorporating the 'cheers' into my everyday verbial wordiage. Maybe I could use cheers sometimes. Cheers! All cool and friendly. But I had some doubts though that I could actually pull off the 'cheers!' without feeling like a poseur or a dope.

We get to the platform and I see the australians looking at the subway map. One of them turns to me and asks if the 2 train stops at Chambers Street. I told them it did and he said, 'Ok great. Cheers then...' or whatever. After he said cheers the second time my enthusiasm about cheers started to fade a little. In my heart I knew I didn't have the cool strength to pull off a clean (outside beers) cheers. Especially on a regular basis. And isn't cheers really just next door to saying 'Ciao!' I don't wanna be that ciao-y guy. Is taking something foreign and using it all over the place all equivalent to busting out 'Ciao!'? Maybe it's less extreme but they're in the same arena.

A train pulls up and it's not the 2 train. It's the 3 train. I could see my australian friends wondering what to do. So I let them know that the 3 train also stops at Chambers Street and they don't have to wait for the 2. The australian then said, 'Oh! Thanks mate. Cheers!' At this point, I knew I was dropping the friggin cheers thing. I got a little annoyed at their three cheers (hip hip hooray?) in like five minutes!  I was like, 'I get it Crocodile Dundee! You're from australia! Does everything qualify for a friggin cheers? Is it non-stop cheers down at australia? Do they cheers at each other over everything all the time? Cheers cheers cheers? Like do the aussies overuse cheers like the way we do with like like or whatever or whatever?' I dunno.

But I realized if it only took me three legitimate cheers to get a little annoyed, than just one of my illegitimate pseudo cheers could qualify for annoying right off the bat. Who do I think I am? Doing cheers? Type thing. Bottom line is, I think if you wanna bring on some foreign lingo into your verbiage you gotta go all-in on it like you've always said it... or just bag it...

so bagged it tis.

Cheers!

umm... I mean... ok bye!

tOdd