Random Quizzilla

1) When you travel, what are your favorite/least favorite modes of transportation?
If I could walk everywhere I would. * I love taking the train to NYC and then flying home. * I loathe the bus. Even the ones that don’t stop at random Chinese buffets in Connecticut. * I don’t mind car travel as long as I’m a passenger (I’m a terrible driver). * Flying never used to bother me but now I absolutely hate it. It’s not a 9/11 thing so much as a claustrophobia thing that seems to have snuck up on me over the years. If I don’t have an aisle seat on the plane, I tend to wig out. On a flight back from San Francisco, I begged the ticket lady for an aisle reassignment on a very full flight. Bitch put us in the very back row of the section right next to the restrooms. The seats didn’t recline and James got stuck in the middle next to a dude with a platinum mullet who talked about Nascar the entire six-hour flight. He still hasn’t forgiven me.

2) Name three things you plan to do in the next 10 years.
Write a book and a screenplay, and officially launch my “Accidental Latina” fashion line. Where is Carol West with her odd collection of Zippos when you need her.

3) Describe a kind gesture someone once extended to you?
Funny you should ask, Quizzilla. Just last weekend, Dreama gave me some Trish McEvoy #11 White Iris -- my favorite – yet cruelly discontinued perfume. As part of a parfum outreach program I started last year, Dreama stumbled across a stash in Connecticut, went the extra mile and brought the goods to Cameo's party. Now that I no longer have to be so miserly with my perfume rations, I'm back to walking around smelling like an old French whore. Thanks again, Dream!

4) Have you ever been “mugged”?
Sort of…almost. Back in the late 80s, I was walking through that Green Line pedestrian tunnel between Berkeley and Arlington streets that has since been sealed off. It was a hot zone for all things untoward and we were always advised to stay out of it especially if we were 1) Alone. 2) At night. 3) Carrying a hot-pink boombox. Which I was. However, I also had a false-sense-of- security golf umbrella as it’d been raining earlier in the evening. Right on cue, five or so tough-looking “youths” rounded the corner, almost in slow-mo, and started walking toward me in menacing way. One of them -- as he passed by -- grabbed the handle of my radio and flashed a pocket knife at me (which in retrospect was more of a glorified nail file.) My fight or flight response totally malfunctioned. Instead of letting go of the foolish pink radio and running for my life, I started screaming and swinging my umbrella around like some shitty, inept ninja. All at once, the kids cracked up laughing, bouncing themselves off the urine-infused walls. Then they threw my radio on the ground and took off giggling. Two T workers who’d witnessed the exchange and were supposedly coming to my rescue, were laughing too. “Sweetheart, I’m sorry but that was the funniest fucking thing I’ve ever seen.” I was pissed.

5) Name a food item you try to always have on hand.
Lifesaver Popsicles. Yum.