Living as close to Santa Fe as I do, you'd think I would see a lot of famous people. I guess they come to Santa Fe to see if we still have the whole "cowboys and indians" thing going on, or to make sure we have running water out here in the sticks. Plus, they don't get swamped with reporters and all, and they like to think they're giving the little people a thrill.


Not so much.


I am one of those people who always has so much going on inside my head that I rarely pay attention to things like that. I'm usually busy looking at minute details, worrying about whether or not I remembered to lock the front door, and wondering if people are staring and/or laughing at the voluminous stomach action I have going on in the front part of my shirt. I rarely, if ever, notice famous people.


My husband, however, notices all that kind of stuff, so if he's with me, I'm good.


We've seen Judge Reinhold (I forgot about that until just this very second) at the Plaza Café in Santa Fe, UB40 right before a concert they were giving at the Kiva in Albuquerque (their autographs are hanging in my bathroom), and Starla from Napoleon Dynamite in Las Vegas when we were going to see Stomp. I've seen Tommy Lee jones at Chocolate Maven in Santa Fe (they must use a lot of makeup on him because I think if I saw his wrinkles and pores in hi-def, I might throw up), and once, when my husband was a teenager, he waited on Elliott Gould at Rancho de Chimayó. That's our list. Up until now.


Drum roll time.


We went to the DeVargas Mall on Friday to watch The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (great movie, by the way) and on our way out, we stopped to refill our large Diet Coke to take home and stick in the fridge (it's like two drinks in one), and CHARO was at the counter, getting some popcorn. Charo! In real life! At first I thought maybe it was a drag act because she was wearing so much makeup and sequins, and the lady she was with was too, but upon further inspection, you could totally see that it was her. In all of her tight-skinned, small-nosed glory. Fabulous.


High point of our celebrity-spotting careers. For reals.


I wanted to ask for her autograph, but I'm too shy and my husband wasn't about to do it. So we stood outside and watched a little through the glass, hopefully unobtrusively, and then left. It was so awesome.


I hope she appreciates us for not bothering her and asking her to say something hilarious in Spanglish. We are just tremendously cool like that. Sigh.