For the Love of Craig

My celebrity crush is Craig Ferguson. I am in love and lust with this man. He makes me laugh with his dirty sense of humor, devilish grin, and Scottish brogue every night. And, we seem to share something in common. A love of the same city - Albuquerque. I grew up there. He visited there, I am assuming for some stand-up gigs, and sees the humor in the small, quaintness of my hometown. One night, a few years ago, he was interviewing Neil Patrick Harris, another of Albuquerque's native sons, and they were talking about the wonders of my city and Craig brought up that Albuquerque has this little hole-in-the-wall Rattlesnake Museum in Old Town.

Since that time, the Rattlesnake Museum in Albuquerque has been an ongoing joke for Craig - and subsequently myself. I now live in Houston for my job with Continental, but I go back to visit my family often as I can. This time, I decided to make a visit to the Rattlesnake Museum. I was not disappointed. For $3.50 I was let into a very, very small set of rooms with dozens of terrariums with all kinds of snakes, lizards, amphibians.

This white snake is a rarity, but not actually an albino, because it doesn't have pink eyes. Weird, huh?

Another of the residents of the Museum. I have never been especially afraid of snakes, but my sister still tells the story of the when she and my father saw Indiana Jones together and the cobra was about to strike Indy and my father cried out in the theater embarrassing her to death. I am surprised that he wanted to go inside with me!

I happened to mention that Craig Ferguson love led me to the Museum to the curator, and he said, "Well, you must know about the mug then!? We're completely sold out, and the waiting list is a mile long." I had been hoping to buy the mug - a guest who had filmed a movie in Albuquerque brought Craig a mug from the Museum a few weeks ago and he has used it on air ever since. It is in the shape of a coiled rattlesnake and the handle is the tail, in a word, it is awesome, but I decided not to put myself on the waiting list. I did buy a magnet to add to my magnet collection from around the world, however.

Despite the fact that the Rattlesnake Museum (and Albuquerque in general) is the butt of many of Craig's good-natured jokes, I found it to be very educational and a great way to spend part of my day.