An Interview

My long-time e-friend and blogging inspiration Dixie offered to interview me and I took her up on it. She asked me five questions and I answered them here for all of you to see.

1. I want to visit you and have you plunge me into the Miami Cuban-American scene. Tell me three things you'd take me to/have me hear/have me eat/whatever that would get me knee-deep in that culture.

• First I'd take you to the most fabulous, kitschy, loud Cuban restaurant in Miami. The kicker is that the food is awesome! It's called "Versailles" and really has to be experienced to be believed. They don't have a web site, but this site gives a good overview of the *Versailles experience*: http://3guysfrommiami.com/versailles.html
• After dinner we'd go to "Hoy Como Ayer" http://www.hoycomoayer.net/ (parts of the website are in English, just poke around) - a funky little club in the heart of Little Havana. They have live acts - many recently arrived from or maybe even still living in Cuba. But the best part is before the live show starts and while the bands take breaks - during that time they show old film footage - the 40s and 50s equivalent of music videos - of Cuban music greats.
• The next day we'd go to "Cuba Nostalgia" http://www.cubanostalgia.org/index_english.htm .OK, so you'd have to come in May while this is going on - but it is totally worth it. You will be plunged into hyper-Cubanness and come out of it having eaten, danced, explored and OD'd on all things Cuban! It's a blast.

2. I met my husband online. You met your husband online. Was there a time when you didn't like to tell people where you met him? Do you feel more comfortable about it now? And since you did it long ago, do you feel like one of the pioneers of the met-him-on-the-Internet crowd?

Honestly, I was never uncomfortable telling people. I absolutely feel like a pioneer. I met him in an AOL chat room - long before all the fanchy-schmancy online dating sites were even on the radar. We started chatting and it moved to the phone and the rest is history!

3. I know you attended an all-girls school. What would you say is the greatest thing an all-girls school education gave you?

There's lots of good that came from my all-girl high school experience, but I'd have to say the greatest one would be self -confidence. Think about it: being an all-girl school, the student body government were young women, the school paper editors were young women, the star athletes were young women, etc. Since we didn't have to worry about intimidating boys with our intelligence we thrived.

After 25 years I saw many of my classmates, and I was stunned at how fabulous we all are! And just recently after one of us died, we are banding together to establish some of kind of memorial to her. My high school is Catholic, and I think something the Priest assigned to our school, Father Elbert (God bless you wherever you are),once said encapsulates my experience: "Today's world doesn't need "nice Catholic girls", it needs "strong Christian women".

4. You're bi-lingual and live in a city where English and Spanish are both spoken. Are there times when you don't speak English and what times are those? How do you decide on whether to speak English or Spanish in a given situation or is it more automatic?

I speak Spanish every single day - unless I'm out of town like now. I work with many Hispanic people and we'll often fall into Spanish. Most of my friends are Hispanic, so we speak Spanglish all the time. Unless my husband is present I speak to my mother in Spanish - even though she speaks English - it's just easier for her, particularly now. And of course, if I'm dealing with someone who struggles with English I speak to them in Spanish - why suffer? It is pretty much automatic, I rarely make a conscious decision as to what language to speak - it just comes out. On a related note, people often ask me if I think in English and translate to Spanish or vice-versa - I can honestly say I think in both, depending on what I'm doing or who I'm speaking to. I know you didn't ask, but what the hell - I also dream in both English and Spanish, depending on what's going on.

5. What's your favorite way of comforting yourself if you're feeling down?

I sink into vacuous television. I'll just sit there for hours if I can, and watch crap. If I can't watch TV, I'll listen to music. Thankfully I'm not usually blue for long. I think I'm blessed with a relatively good mindset.

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Now it's someone else's turn to play if they wish: Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.” I will respond by asking you five questions in the comments here on this post so check back here. I get to pick the questions. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.