I'm writing at school because I'm anticipating a busy afternoon
once I get home, so no reports yet on Maxx. Although I will tell you
where I got the name from. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the
actual kind of computer it is -- Mac -- and I didn't even make that
connection until after I'd posted yesterday's entry and was reading it
over.Possibly the first words I ever spoke were "I want a dog." If they
were, then I was copying my sister's first words four years earlier.
We always wanted to get a dog, all through our growing up years. My
father, who loved dogs, would not have one in his house. He didn't
like the "dirty" aspects of a dog -- muddy paws, smelly fur, etc. --
and he knew he would get stuck with walking it. So, no dogs in that
house. When my sister got married (the first time), they got a Golden
Retriever just a few months later. Elsa the dog was backlash for years
of wanting a dog, and although she was sweet as anything, she was big,
of course, and relatively dumb, at least for a Golden. But I digress.
My quest for a dog took on the quality of fantasy, and I would from
time to time imagine what kind of dog I would get, and what I would
name it. Sometime when I was in high school, I read Where the Wild
Things Are for the first time, and I thought that if I ever got a
dog, I would call it Max.
The Hubs, as I have mentioned before, is not a dog lover, and although
I swear that he said before we were married that someday I could get a
dog, he does not recall this, and anyway, there's just no point in
having a dog that he doesn't want. So the dog fantasy has to remain
just that, since dog and husband are incompatible, and for now, I'm
keeping the husband.
Okay, I've written some of this before, but here's more on the name
thing. Max has pretty much always stuck in my head as a handy name to
have in reserve. Years back, I worked as a counselor in a day camp
that my kids and my sister's twins went to, the twins being old enough
to be among the oldest campers there. Now, what was it that the twins
generally called me?
Somehow, when their older brother was born, I had him just call me and
the Hubs by our first names, as the Hubs called his aunts and uncles.
To me, this was very close and personal and I liked it, but the twins
did not want to go that way, for some reason. So from a young age,
they called me "Auntie" and consequently, my kids always called my
sister Auntie, too. Aw, sweet. Until they were at camp and were maybe
12 or 13 and felt foolish calling me Auntie in front of their friends.
So out of nowhere, I said to them one day, "Hey, if you need me, call
me Max. With two XXs. Maxx." Several times, they would call out across
the playing fields of the camp "Hi, Maxx!" and I would have no idea
that they were talking to me. Heh heh.
Well. So my fantasy dog's name became Maxx, with two XXs. And you know
when I was in Florida last month, I fell totally in love with my
cousin's puppy and now that is my fantasy dog. What breed is that dog?
It is a Coton du Tulear. I have since looked it up, but when he told
me what it was he said it was "a cotton-something." It's fur is
cottony-feeling hair, so it doesn't shed and it's non-allergenic. But
again, I digress.
Cotton? Hmm. Is anyone else out there a childhood fan of The Little
Rascals? (Our Gang, as they were originally known.) If I
saw any episode today, I would recite every word of dialog, atlhough I
probably haven't seen one in 35 years, maybe more. Man, I worshipped
those short films. And I can't be the only one who remembers Stymie
rubbing what he thought was a magic lamp and intoning "I wish Cotton
was a monkey. I wish Cotton was a monkey." (Cotton was his dog's name,
but he wanted a monkey instead, which he was led to believe he got
over the course of the film.)
Anyway. So, for the last few weeks, what I've got stuck in my head is
that I want a Coton du Tulear -- which I am never getting -- and I
will name it Maxx Monkey.
Well, Maxx Monkey would be a very foolish and frivolous name for an
elegant little machine like a shiny white laptop, wouldn't it? But
when I was typing yesterday's entry, the last one on the PC, I just
felt that my new little friend should be known as Maxx. It's only fair
that I get to use the name somewhere, after all.
