Life, Death, and Television

Fiorella tossed twenty-three years worth of attendance charts, grade books, and syllabi into the trash can today. Twenty-three years of her life, but it was time to move on. She's been out of the academic scene for ten years now and needs to clear the shelves to store her books, stories, poems, and essays.
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Husband likes to watch television ALL THE TIME, which drives Fio crazy, especially since he usually has the volume turned up, so last night she ran upstairs into her office for respite--only to discover that the TV in the master bedroom was also going full blast. GRRRR!
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Fio just learned the her old college roommate, Mary Cornelia Spinks Weil, died in January. Corny became a renowned journalist, but more important to Fio, she was a great roommate, and wherever she's headed now, Fio wishes her well.

From NCIS to Jane Perrine

SCREAM! Husband has been watching NCIS all day, and Fio is at the point that she'd gladly wipe out Gibbs herself just to get the TV turned off. What is about about men and TV power figures?
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Your Fiorella is planning to return to the Verizon store tomorrow for the third day running. It's a matter of getting her "new" cell phone set up. The problem this time is that she apparently needs to update something or other in order to transfer a picture to FB. You can bet the guys will be drawing straws when they see her coming--short straw has to take care of the stupid old lady.
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Easter is a-comin' and Fio has prepared mini-baskets of chocolate eggs for four neighbors who have been especially helpful to her. She's also given Stephanie and Lisa, her two favorite bankers, little bags of chocolate Easter coins. Now she's preparing for the family celebration, which will feature Baby WALKING!
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The bluebonnets are gorgeous this year--not ours, but the ones in the neghbors' yards and along the road.
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In case you're wondering how to say "Happy Easter" en el espanol, it's felices pascuas. Thank Jane Myers Perrine for that infromation. It's nice to have a friend who taught high school Spanish and is willing to share.

TV and Me

Another good TV show bites the dust, at least as far as Fiorella is concerned. Lucifer is no longer funny, just screechy and stupid, so she's no longer watching it, just like she is no longer watching The Little Couple because in the years between when the old show went off the air and the new one debuted, Bill and Jen became so entitled that Fio doesn't care about them anymore. The only shows she's watching now are Big Bang Theory, which, even after ten years, is still amazingly fresh, funny, and human, her telenovela, the first fifteen minutes of Colbert, and an occasional 600-Pound Life.

It may be that Fio's simply bored with television. After all, she's been sitting in front of the boob tube sine she was four. In fact, her college years were the only time she was away from TV.

On the other hand, maybe it's just that Fio has finally grown up. Fiorella? Grown up? Never!

Language Crossovers

Apparently Fioralla's brain categorizes langiages as either English or Other, judging by the way her study of el espanol has reactivated her Russian, German, and even Telugu. Yesterday she caught herself using pahtuhmyshto instead of porque when trying to put together a sentence in Spanish.

Speaking of Spanish, Fio is quite pleased with her recent progress. Her verbos are coming along, she's attempting simple frases, and she's understanding enough of her new telenovela, Mi Marido Tiene Familia, that she can follow the plot. It really helps to have a backgorund in linguistics, but it helps even more to have friends who are kind enough to help her. (Okay, Fio will admit it--Translater on Google helps too.)
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But Fio looks back on her Russian studies with sorrow. If only Russian-language television had been avilable back then. If only the instructional program had involved more verbal communication and less translation of long-dead authors, althoug Fio can still recite the beginning of  Yevgeny Onyegin:. "Moy dyadya sahmic chesnic pravil, kahgdah nyev shootku zahnimog.....". Pahnimayitzi menya?

To Spanish or Not to Spanish

Husband is tucked away upstairs for the night so Fio has parked herself on the couch to watch La Doble Vida de Estela Carrillo--but there's some dumb awards show on instead. GRRRR!
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Fiorella can translate written Spanish better now, but she hasn't made much progress with the spoken language. It's a matter of not having anyone to practice with.
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Strangely enough, trying to learn Spanish has triggered Fio's long-forgotten Russian again. She keeps saying things like myedlenuh, puhzhaulsta (slower, please) or deliberately combining the languages, like gdyeh estan mis pildoras (where are my pills?), which makes her laugh. But then as Husband has always said, Fio is easily amused.
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Fio is looking at the awards show screen now. Good grief. The "dress" that Mexican cantante is almost wearing looks like a single layer of some ultra-shear semi-fabric. Fio knows that's show biz, but she'd like to see more taste and less skin, more elegance and less "I've gone about as far as I can go." Has it ever dawned on anyone that the end of extreme has been breached and the only outfit that would be different enough now to draw everyone's attention is a something simple and in good taste?
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Fiorella has learned a lot about the Mexican-American music industry from La Doble Vida. And about being undocumented. And about drug lords and crooked politicians. Yep, it's cup runneth over.

Catching You Up on El Color de la Pasion

Fiorella doubled down on el espanol yesterday. Or rather, tripled down. During the afternoon, she posted two pages of verb tenses for ser ("to be") on the wall above her desk. Later, about twenty minutes before El Color de la Pasion came on, she played with Duolingo on her phone. Then she topped the evening off by watching the telenovela. All the prep work was worth it--not that there's anything subtle going on, but Fio caught a few more words and phrases. To bring you up to date, Tia (Aunt) Rebeca, the villainess, has been tossed out of her luxurious casa (home) by sweet Lucia, who turned into a spitfire when she learned that Rebeca, out of jealousy, had shoved her older sister, Lucia's mother, over the balcony when Lucia was a baby. Then Daniela, who is embarazada (pregnant) broke it to Milagros,who had tried to set up an assignation between her and her son Marcelo, that Marcelo was not the father of the child. The hour ended as Brigita, who had put her homeless friend Rebeca up for the night, walked into the guest bedroom to witness her despicable husband, Amador, groping and kissing a struggling Rebeca.

And those were just the highlights.

Lucia, Marcelo, and Sex

Thank goodness last night was a week night and El Color de la Pasion was on TV. After the stress of the day, Fiorella needed to lose herself in a gripping telenovela. The last she saw on Friday evening, Lucia, the heroine, was about to have sex with Roman, and Marcelo, the hero, was about to have sex with Daniela (who apparently is not his half-sister after all).

Were Lucia and Marco going to realize they are with the wrong partners and back off at the last moment? Or would someone burst into room on one or the other of them? Or would a phone ring or a fire alarm go off?

As it turned out, little puffy memory clouds vaporizing above their heads, which the show has begun using lately, caused both of them to beg off with the wrong partners and find each other again. Regarding further action, Nora got threatened by Ricardo and Daniela caught her father in bed with Rebeca.

Golly, if Gaspozha Skarjinskaya had directed her class to a Russian-language telenovela, Fio would have learned and retained russkee yazeek much better.

And When Will Hollywood Call?

Thank you, God--in this horrible aftermath of the election, Fiorella needed something upbeat to happen, and it did. Serena called back and asked Fio to meet her next Wednesday at the American-Statesman office so she could make her TV advertising debut for Roger Beasley Mazda. Fio, of course, is thrilled to do so, and not just because she is a natural-born ham. Through the years, she has had a wonderful relationship with the guys at the Georgetown location. They have been not only kept her baby car in good shape, but been unfailingly polite, helpful, cheerful, reliable, and kind, and Fio wants to tell the whole world about how great they are.

Fio, the Guinea Pig

Fiorella once had a German neighbor who said she'd learned English by watching American television so Fio has been watching Spanish-language TV each night to try to learn Spanish. Currently, she's only watching for about fifteen minutes at a time, mainly to pick up the rhythm of the language, the obvious constructions, and the phonemes, but as she progresses, she hopes to pick up word meanings in context. (Hint: the advertisements are gold mines.)

Just another of the 101 projects Fio has going on in her life.

Newspapers

Fiorella's mother had been a journalism teacher, and the family always subscribed to a newspaper, much to Fio's benefit.  She learned to read from comic strips, and a newspaper validated her childhood art by publishing it.  In high school, she edited the longest-running Latin student publication in the country one year and the state Latin student publication the next year.  Later on, she married the son of two journalists. In graduate school, she originated a department newsletter. Later, in between teaching and grading, she wrote for the local newspaper and even set up two tabloids on her own.  Yes, Fiorella loves newspapers. but her own children are barely aware of them.  Why bother when they have television and computers at their beck and call?

Fiorella is sad.

TV-Deprived

This is Day Four without television, and it still feels strange.  On Monday, the old corner cabinet got torn out, which meant that a lot of electric wires were cut.  On Tuesday, standing wall shelves replaced it, which meant the wires stayed cut.  Then Fio and Husband spent last night working on what the handyman hadn't finished off.

Husband will probably hook up the TV again tomorrow--or maybe he'll leave it for Minnesota Son to do when he and his wife come to visit next week.  Gotta entertain them somehow.

Respite

Fiorella took the day off yesterday.  Well, she'd developed a bad headache and pretty much had to, but, like many bad things, it worked out for the best.  Her brain had been blasted on Tuesday by working on the taxes.  And she's been doing catch-up stuff after writing night and day for a couple of months there. But yesterday, all she did was drive off for a photofacial, which is relaxing in itself, then spend the rest of the the day watching dumb television, and drowsing.  Oh--and Husband took her out for a steak dinner.

But today, she'll hit the old grindstone again.  Her list is waiting.

Alcohol

Fiorella's mother grew up in a house that was dominated by her father's alcoholism so Fiorella grew up in a house that was alcohol-free.

But she was fascinated by the concept of drinking.  Not like the drinking her grandfather engaged in, but like the sophisticated people on television and in the movies who had a beer with friends or sipped a glass of wine before dinner or carried around a cocktail at a toney parties.

Fio had her chance when she was eighteen and departed stone-sober Waco for the more mellow halls of The University of Texas.  She drank on dates and at parties.  She even got drunk a few times.  But she never liked the taste.  Finally she quite trying.

Make Fio's water.

Educational TV

If you are parents who want to bring up kids to be sweet and caring, check out The Little Couple.

If you are a guy who wants to break into television, court a Duggar daughter from Nineteen and Counting.

If you doubt Americans are the most blessed people in the world, watch House Hunters.

If you can't go to sleep, turn on late night television.

Behind the Times--Again

The television in Casa Fiorella has been on the blink for several days now.  Husband figured out how to get some sound out of it yesterday, but then lost it again, along with the picture. And all because of the new remote.

Guess remotes have gotten more complicated lately, just like the TV, the computer, and everything else. As Fiorella has often said, she'd like the world to slow down for a while so she can catch up.

Time and Circumstance

So far this week, Fiorella and Sonya Dog have both been staying in bed till eight.  Neither of them has made the transition to Daylight Savings Time.  But that has to change, at least for Fio because she's also staying up till eleven, which is w-a-y too late for someone who needs to spend all day working on editor's revision.
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The newspaper has changed its comic strips page format.  It's also subscribed to a different crossword puzzle maker, which irks the hell out of Fio.  She liked the old one, the one who used "oboe" and "opal" every chance he got, the one whose solvable puzzles gave her the confidence to face the day.
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Every morning at 11:30, the TV sound turns itself on.  No picture, just the sound.  Fiorella doesn't understand why, and Husband can't figure it out either.

Electronics Again

Two weeks without television.  I don't think that's ever happened before, even when we were on vacation.  Husband promises to get everything working over the weekend, though.  We'll see--or maybe not.
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It's like we live in a snake house.  There are coils of black plastic cords all over the place. Fiorella  wants a computer system that requires neither a power cord nor a printer cord.
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Son understands all about wiring up a television or a computer, but never learned to ride a bicycle.

To TV or Not to TV?

Until the television lost its sound, Fiorella never realized what a noisy environment she had been living in.  Not that she ever had the TV on during the day, but when Husband came home in the evening, the controllers got heavy usage.  Big Bang, NCIS, and, after Husband went to bed, House Hunters and Little Couple.  And if Fio was up late because she couldn't sleep, anything else that was on the tube was game.

It's different now.  Fio and Husband are talking more.  The house seems cozier--although that could be because of the autumnal darkness. Maybe we should can  the TV altogether.

Sleepytime TV

Hear ye, hear ye!

In order to relax at the end of the day, Fiorella wants to watch happy. charming, non-challenging, low-key television from eight to ten.  No shows with tension in them, which cuts out America's Got Talent and the like, and also covers all the NCIS variants.  No scary shows either--Fio doesn't need to dream of what might be lurking in her attic.  And nothing that makes her sad, excited, or angry.

Plain jane House Hunters, Little Couple, and Income Property are usually her choices, but the former is in reruns and the latter two seem to be in abeyance..

Maybe she'll be forced to take up reading again.

Better Late than Never

Fio never discovers good sit-coms until they're in reruns. Her latest is The Big Bang Theory. Yes, she know everyone and their chihuahua has been watching the show since forever, but a couple of days ago she got desperate enough while cruising the wasteland called television programming to pause for a few minutes as the Indian astrophysicist and the Jewish engineer were heading out for an evening of Goth. Last night she watched the whole episode in which Sheldon takes on the other three in a physics superbowl.

It was fun, harmless, and all ended well.

Life should be so good.