la meghan

esta es la teresa. when i was first introduced to her, i thought, "oh, interesting, people here call their pets la/el ___." then, after living a couple days with my new familia, i heard multiple phone conversations where vivi (mi madre) or sergio (mi padre) would be telling their friends, "pues estoy en casa con la meghan" or "hoy yo y la meghan fuimos a la feria". i eventually asked a chilean amiga what the deal is with putting el/la in front of people's names, and learned that putting the article in front implies that you know the person you're talking about, that it's not just some random meghan that you're referring to.
anyway, teresa and i are now muy amigas because of our mutual affinity for manzanas- i eat the manzana, she eats the core :)