Learning Italian; definite articles? definitelyANNOYING!!

Ok Diary this will be a tiny break fomr the obsession over weight loss/gain as I take a break to whine about trying to learn Italian. I have learned French and Spanish and thought (quite erroneously) that Italian woud be no sweat. Well it IS a sweat. I have my Drive-by Italian CDs that I listen to in my car and by the time I get to work I feel like my brain has been swirled around with an egg whisk. Let's start my rant with Definite Articles. In Italian you have a bunch of different ones and on days when the sun is shining you use "LA" when it is cloudy out and the policeman in front of you is wearing sunglasses you use "LE" When you have gone completely around the bend and are having a full blown hysterical laughing fit because you would put a bullet in your head if you didn't, you use "GLI". The problem emanates from the fact that French, Spanish and Italian are so close that you feel like by speaking Spanish or French, it should just naturally come out Italian and it doesn't!!!!! I had an English lady friend who told me "Its so easy dahrling! You simply speak French and put an "O" or an "I" at the end and it becomes Italian! WRONG!!! In fact it is much harder because the English phrase goes into my head, translates into French, then I mentally say "no" (Or "mais non"), then it translates in Spanish which again is incorrect then I finally translate it into Italian, run it through all the rules and grammer making sure it all agrees and finally it comes out sort, kinda Italian. In the meantime I sit there for a full 60 second minute with my eyes bulging and my tongue hanging out grunting like a monosyllabic pig!

Honestly, when I decided to take up Italian, I pictured myself at smart Italian dinner parties with perhaps an ultra long cigarette holder and stillettos that I can barely walk in spitting out sharp and witty Italian phrases with the speed and accuracy of a machine gun. (Somewhere in that picture my hair grew long and spontaneously straightened and turned black and I lost weight and about 20 years). Obviously the return to earth from dreamland was a pretty rough landing. Ok then! There is nothing for it but to increase the practice and keep at it. Persistence is the key Diary! I'll keep in touch.
Arrivederci!!!!