Bit of Ivory

I had quite an adventure today. Teri, I know stuff like this makes you squeamish, so you might want to skip this part–but I’ll try to be as un-graphic as possible.

In Floral Design we were doing formal centerpieces with candles, and I was snipping the head off a rose when I got bumped slightly and ended up snipping the top of my middle finger on my left hand–cut a nice little flap. At first I couldn’t believe what I’d just done, but then it started bleeding profusely, and I had to go get the teacher who ran for the First Aid kit (not the first time a thing like this has happened, I’m sure). While she was wrapping my finger I started to feel light-headed and my hearing started going out, so I hurried and sat down. Once my hearing came back I attended to trying to get the bleeding to stop. About 15 minutes later it did, and I continued with my arrangement. It’s beautiful, but my teacher thought I was crazy.

Anyway, after class was over I went to the library and asked if I could miss work to go to Instacare (not quite the emergency room–it’s for minor emergencies) to see if I might need stitches. They let me off, of course, and my sister drove me over. Instead of stitches, they used that new glue. It’s supposed to last for ten days. It had been more than 5 years since my last tetanus shot (when I sliced my finger with a rotary fabric cutter in 9th grade), so I got one of those too.

So now I’ve got this big bandage on my finger, which is actually making it rather difficult to type (so excuse any typos, please–I’ve already used the backspace button more than usual, and since it’s my most-used key, that’s saying something). It’s certainly going to make testing Triple Swing tomorrow an interesting exercise, to say nothing of typing my term papers. It hurts a little, but not as much as I thought it would.

Now, for anyone who’s interested, here’s more than you ever wanted to know about my name. . .

1. What does your first name mean?

It’s either German or Latin and means either “Admiring” or “Industrious.”

2. What does your middle name mean?

Ain’t got none. (I is a English major also too. )

3. What does your last name mean?

It’s English and means by the way or road. Deep, eh?

4. So what does your name mean when put together?

Umm. . an industrious or admiring one by the road.

5. What would you have been named if you were the opposite gender?

Mom and Dad couldn’t agree on a boy name for me, so it was probably a good thing that I was a girl.

6. Any other name oddities?

How much odder can you get than my last name? I mean, really,a prepositional phrase? Actually, the oddity of our last name has resulted in most of my cousins and aunts and uncles and ancestors being named with very plain first names; names also tend to be repeated, because only a few names really sound good with Bytheway. For instance, no one in my family will ever be named Owen. Think about it for a minute. Got it? And if I happen to marry someone who’s last name is a verb, I would be a sentence.

7. Do you like your name?

Yes.

8. What do you like best about it?

Well, I’ve always liked my first name, and although my last name has earned me a lot of teasing over the years, it’s also very unique, which is always fun.

9. What do you like least about it?

Way too many people have my first name, and it only seems to be growing in popularity. In elementary school there was only one other Emily in the whole school– by the time I got to junior high, there were at least 7, and by the time high school rolled around, I stopped turning around when someone said my name in the hall because they were never talking to me. On the odd times when someone was trying to get my attention, they’d finally yell my last name. There were only two of us (me and my bro).

My last name, on the other hand, is so unique that it causes problems. I have an uncle who’s rather famous in LDS circles (he writes books and gives motivational talks for LDS youth), so after hearing my last name people often ask “Are you related to John?” (which I got asked just today, actually, by my Floral Design T.A.). This, however, is better than the other reactions, which invariably include “By the way, what’s your last name?” (like I haven’t heard THAT every day since, oh, Kindergarten), or “By the way. . .what?” or “How do you spell that?” When seeing my name on paper, people usually mispronounce it (Bithway, Bythway, and Bitheway are the three most common mispronuciations– for those of you who are wondering how you *do* pronounce it, it’s By-the-way–just like it’s spelled). And if they DON’T ask how to spell it, they invariably spell it wrong (all the above mispronuciations are also common mispellings, in addition to Byetheway, which is how one of my friends spelled it even after knowing me for 5 years–her name is Antoinette, you’d think she’d pay more attention to the spelling of names). Anyway, my last name has often been the topic of discussion among new acquaintances one way or another. I’ve just stopped giving it at restaurants for the above reasons.

10. If you HAD to change your name (witness protection program, whatever), what would you want it to be?

Umm. . .I love the name Kilmeny. Rather outlandish, I know. But since I’d have to ditch my last name as well, I think I could pull it off.