Macy the Emaciated Dog

Emaciate:

(Verb) - To make abnormally lean or thin by a gradual wasting away of flesh, especially as a result of starvation.

Synonyms - Thin, wasted, puny, gaunt, haggard, scrawny.

One of my best friends in high school used to call me emaciated. I used to just laugh with her because I thought it was just a big word that sounded like my name. Emaciated sounded to me like emancipated. To emancipate means to free from restraint or to free (a slave) from bondage. Little did my 17 year old mind know, these two sound alike words were actually completely different. The whole time she was calling me emaciated, I was thinking of the definition of emancipated. I thought she was relating me to a free person-someone with little to no worries-a vagabond perhaps. I felt that maybe I was freeing her from some kind of unconscious restraint.

Now that I know the actual definition of the word, I don't know whether to laugh even harder or to be offended. I am a tall, fairly thin figure. I can see where she would match up part of that definition with me. But I am not so thin that my flesh is wasting away. I wish the flesh off of my love handles would waste away, but believe me they are there whether I starve myself or not. The synonyms to this lovely word further my point: Thin, wasted, puny, gaunt, haggard, and scrawny. These synonyms don't exactly have a positive connotation to them. Was my best friend calling me a puny haggard all these years?

Education is bliss. Now that I know what emaciated means, I can laugh even harder. Until at work the past month I've met one dog and heard about two others with my name. The laughing has ceased for a moment.

David and I watched four kids for a week as the parents went to Mexico on their anniversary. It was a big week of responsibilities and also a "self-note" to postpone kids for a year or two. We clearly are not ready for that yet. The family had two dogs. One dog was an outside dog. I actually don't remember her name. It was scrappy, sadie, or something else that I cannot remember. It had to stay out in the cold garage all week long. Meanwhile, their other dog was an inside dog. Her name was Macy and she was so cute and spoiled as she ran inside the warm home. Then a pharmacist I work with returned from the holidays to tell me that he got a new dog whose name happened to be Macy. He got the dog from a family who was just trying to get rid of her. She was unwanted. Hearing about two dogs with my name was not a big deal, but then on Tuesday another pharmacist told me that his friend's dog is named Macy and that he always calls her emaciated because of how scrawny it is.

That was the straw that broke the camel's back. After that encounter, I dramatically said to myself, "I have a freak ing dog's name!" I have calmed down since then and realized that this is a bit of an overreaction. Coincidentally I have encountered three dogs with my name in the past month. Fortunately, I have learned what emaciated means. Miraculously, I a m laughing now. Although there are quite a few dogs out there with my name, there are also quite a few people with my name too. I am not a dog, nor am I emaciated. Those are just coincidences and nicknames. I have to remind myself that I love my name and to laugh about all this other stuff.