CPR
At work on Friday, I underwent CPR training and am now a First Responder (as defined by my workplace, not by the Red Cross – that’s like 60 hours of training, and I have six). I’ve got basic first aid, CPR, and AED now. It’s funny – in a lot of ways I’m definitely cut out to be an emergency worker of some kind. In emergencies, my adrenaline surge is quick, smooth, and powerful, and I don’t crash afterwards like most people do. I’m really good in bad moments. But on the other side of the coin, I can’t deal with watching Red Cross videos with actors pretending to have broken legs and heart attacks and stuff. Six hours of that stuff and I was about to be sick. Heck, sixty seconds of that was enough for me. Not sure what’s up with that.
007
That evening we finally went and saw Casino Royale. Another little-known-fact I could have included in that meme a week or so ago would be that I used to be hardcore obsessed with James Bond. I think it was 11th grade when I really hit my Bond phase. I’d spend hours researching all things 007 – was a regular expert on Aston Martins, handguns, crazy Q-ian technology. I filled file cabinets with photographs, character rosters, plot summaries, even fan fiction (not my own). I watched every movie in order and read every Ian Fleming I could find in our small local library. My enchantment fizzled when I discovered that A. the books weren’t all that good and B. Diamonds Are Forever was the most awful excuse for a movie ever.
When I learned Brosnan had abandoned the Bond franchise, I mourned. What can I say? He was the best Bond after Connery that we’d had. (Yes, I’m venturing into controversial-if-you’re-a-geek-like-me country. Welcome!) And when I learned they’d cast blondy Daniel Craig as 007 for the new movie, I raised one very skeptical eyebrow. That, and a busy schedule, kept me from rushing the theater doors as soon as the film came out.
Man, am I kicking myself.
I’m all torn up inside. This movie was astoundingly good (not, perhaps, compared to an Oscar movie, but definitely compared to other – espeically recent – Bonds). They knocked off all the ridiculous cheesy lines that personally ruined the later Brosnan movies for me and went to enormous lengths to give depth and humanity to everyone’s favorite two-dimensional spy. Craig was fantastic – gorgeous, multifaceted, smart, believable, likeable, hateable, perfect. By the end of the movie I couldn’t imagine anyone else in the role, and there was some discussion on the way home as to whether or not Craig’s Bond trumped Connery’s. (Yes, heresy, I know!)
But it was So Sad. I’m not accustomed to being sad after a Bond movie. The ending (I won’t go into detail in case you haven’t seen it yet) was sad enough, but I’m just heartbroken by the scene where he’s so furious at being doublecrossed and yet he still tries so hard to save her. That’s a side of Bond we don’t ever get to see again, and now we know why. Ach.
Craig is a good actor. Whoever they’d got writing the new Bond scripts is a savior to the franchise. I can’t wait for the next one. From the viewpoint of a reformed Bondomaniac, Casino Royale was pretty much perfect in every way.
FESTIVAL
On Saturday we got up early and went to the McCall Winter Festival, an annual event with snow sculpture contests and a Mardi Gras-style parade celebrating, among other things, the town’s resident lake monster, Sharlie. It’s really kind of a totally amazing thing, if you’ve never been – probably doubly so if you live in a warmer part of the country. The snow sculptures, for one thing, are out of this world – you’d be amazed how realistic and detailed they are. Thousands of people show up to watch the parade, where you get beads if you holler and wave your arms – much more practical in McCall January weather than exposing yourself. 🙂 Everywhere you go you see people dressed up like brightly colored lunatics. Kids climb on the snow sculptures and sled down the hill onto the frozen-solid lake; beneath the ice, Sharlie presumably has a helluva space heater.
McCall Winter Festival is really more of a visual thing, so I suppose pictures are in order… I didn’t get any good pictures of the really awesome snow scupltures because my batteries died, but there’s a couple that are fairly good.
Sharlie
Look, it’s a snowcat!
That’s a seriously frozen lake.
SUNDAY
In a nutshell, because this is a really long boring post: Had the third “comparative theology” sermon in a series at church (this week was Islam) and took a nap afterwards because I was feeling pretty gross.
Admitted to myself that I was hooked on Buffy (I never watched, and then it started showing up on our TiVo, and now I can’t stop watching. It’s such terrible TV, too! The special effects kill me. But I’m utterly entranced. I came in at about the point when Riley leaves the military group, and we’re up to the point where Buffy’s mom has brain cancer and Spike is falling in love with her. I think it’s the utterly unwanted romance storyline that’s really getting to me…)
Speaking of finally getting interested in something that millions of people have loved for years, I downloaded a song on Sunday, too. One of the lines is “This bandwagon’s full, please catch another.” If you tell me what song that is you win a cookie.
And last night, I started reading a book – Charlaine Harris’s Grave Surprise. Harris is hands-down my new favorite frivolous fictioneer. I especially like her Shakespeare and Sookie serieses. Had to make myself put the book down at about 1 AM – this one isn’t that great, but it’s engaging as all get-out. All of her books are.
The project’s dedicated email address is oxford.and.leather@gmail.com. 
Did You Have Juice? 