if i hear the word 'fidanzato' one more time...

so we picked up even more relatives from italy on the weekend... and it's great. we get to sit around and talk about gory stories like how my cousin died in the shower and flooded his apartment, how my other cousin is still going through her 7 year adoption struggle with a child from Romania... and how I'm single.

like - me being single is as bad as my cousin having a heart attack and dying in the shower (RIP Paolo - no offense). i can't see how the two can bear equal weight.

i picked up my cousin who is here doing his PHD to take him to salsa a week ago. i decided to be polite and go inside and say a quick hi to my zia. she's got a broken foot at the moment so i figured i would only be stuck talking for as long as it took for me to leave.

Zia: Bee! come stai, eh?
Me: Hi Zia, good thanks, how are you?
Zia: not bad, but you know - questo piede (motioning to her foot)
Me: yeah i know zia, i know
Zia: allora, you're taking F. out? thatsa nice. E il suo fidanzato he's going too?
Me: ah, no zia, i don't have a fidanzato
Zia: ma che?! i thoughta you hadda fidanzato... last time you had one, no?
Me: yeah but zia, not anymore
Zia: ah... ti ha lasciato?
(insert B's thoughts here - why does everyone assume HE left ME? and the fact that it's correct shits me even more!)
Me: ah yeah zia, he left me, ages ago
Zia: ah Bee, no worry, no worry... meglio che ti ha lasciato addesso invece a dopo when you married
(FOR FUCK'S SAKE... better that he left you then than after you're married)
Me: Ok zia, yeah, e' meglio, i gotta go, ciao! (ran out)
Zia: ok ciao! (oblivious to what she's just said)

bleh - that was just the beginning of what happened - it pissed me off so much i can't even tell the point of my story.

and - can i just say - why is there no word for boyfriend in Italian? he is your nothing or he is your fiancé? there's no in between. it's so embarrassing when me or my cousins bring someone who isn't italian and our relatives try to speak english and say they're so happy to meet our 'fiances'. can they not just learn the word 'boyfriend'? they manage to learn the words 'marriage', 'kitchen tea', 'hen's night' and 'honeymoon'. agh!