loading emacs macros from file

[Daniel L Elliott]

Hello,

I am trying to load the following file (~/.emacs_files/macros.el) which
contains two macros in my .emacs file:

;;macro created to insert reuse eval comments.  designed for figuring out what 
is happening in a big program.
(fset 'my-insert-reuse-comment
   
"/\261\260\260*\C-i\C-mdan:\C-m\261\260\260*/\C-i\C-m\C-i\C-[OA\C-[OA\C-e\C-m")
;;macro created to insert skeleton for a class description.  designed to be 
placed at the top of the header file.
(fset 'my-cpp-class-desc
   "\C-m\C-m\C-[OA\C-[OA/\C-[1\C-[0\C-[0*\C-m**\C-m** Class\C-m**\C-m**
   Se\C-?\C-?Dex\C-?scription:\C-m**\C-m** TO \C-?\C-?o
   do:\C-m**\C-m\C-[1\C-[0\C-[0*/")

using the following:
(setq load-path (append load-path (list "~<myUserName>/.emacs_files")))
;;some junk I wrote
(load "utilities")
;;my macros
(load "macros")

However, when running M-x <either macro name>, I get 'no match'.  Why is this?  
Am I fundamentally doing something wrong here?

Thank you,

dan elliott