#7 Choking a Snake

This will be short and sweet...so at least ten paragraphs long!

It happened on a whim. I had just flown back from visiting my friend Chris in New Brunswick (where I had completed a slew of firsts) and had promised Chapters that I would work that night because it was the release party of the last Harry Potter book. Who wouldn't want to miss that? It was actually pretty fun and crazy. They had everything from "Bowling for Dementors" to a magician and a gingerbread Hogwarts and Quidditch pitch. It was pretty impressive. Even the staff was dressed up as characters from the series. Cudos to Cody on the awesome Neville Longbottom outfit.

I didn't know everything that was going on when I got there, but I heard from someone that there was a reptile display in the kid's section (of all places). So I took a quick break and went back to see it. The Snake Lady was just tearing down when I got back to that part of the store. However, there was still one snake being mauled by a few kids. I don't know what got into me, but I suddenly saw this as my opportunity to hold a snake. That probably sounds strange, how many people think of holding a snake as an 'opportunity'? But I knew this would be something interesting to add it to my list so I mustered up the courage and asked a six year old if I could hold it and another kid if he could take a picture.

If you look at the picture, it looks like I am about to choke that monster of a snake, but I was trying to keep my fingers as loose as possible without dropping it. I think I held it for a total of 15 seconds while the boy took the picture. There was no way I was going to spend any longer letting it slide through my fingers or having its beady little eyes gazing into mine. (I think it liked me!) Honestly though, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but be sure that you will never see me holding a boa constrictor and dancing backup for some pop princess.