Spanish Progress--Or Not

Miercoles--"Wednesday" en el espanol--Fio loves the sound of it.

And, Fiorella, how is the rest of your Spanish going, you ask? Well, lentamente (slowly), to tell the truth, although Fio has a good grip on about ten present-tense verbos now. Her vocabulary of nouns has grown too, partially because she's a faithful fan of telenovelas. (Sp speakers--does carnal, as used by John and Oscar in La Piloto, mean "sexy?")

La problema is that she has a limited number of people to practice on. Her twice-a-month maid and one-a-month yardman are happy to help, but they (and a couple of cooperative fast-food people) aren't enough. The etiquetas stuck on the muebles and listas taped on the paredes aren't enough. Fio needs to find a class.

Why the F*** Not?

Your Fiorella is a born rebel, especially against herself.  All it takes is her making a declaration like "I will never ever use slang or medical terminology for sex organs in my books" to challenge herself to do the same.  Thus while genteel Laurel Harlow, the heroine of Kinkaid House, couldn't even bring herself to say "damn," much less refer to her lover's private parts, Lolly Redlander, the free-wheeling heroine of Princess Redlander (which will probably end up retitled) uses all the words and then some.

Now, the question is whether Fiorella has Lolly using a blue vocabulary because it is in her  character, or whether Fiorella set up the character to use that vocabulary and thus prove herself wrong. 

Greek to Them

Fiorella has been brooding. A fellow attendee at her class reunion let it slip that "they" used to make fun of Fio for using big words that none of them had ever heard before. Embarrassed, Fiorella explained that she probably picked them up from reading, that she had no idea people didn't understand what she was saying.

Thanks goodness Fio met Husband, who also has a large vocabulary. Otherwise she might have pined away in maidenly seclusion, wondering if her deodorant had failed her.