more than meets the eye

well, i saw this movie yesterday with my little brother. it's been a long time since i was so childishly excited while anticipating and also while the movie. i felt about 9 years old again i know now the show was just a ploy for hasbro to get kids to buy these toys; and that this movie was great product placement for gmc/pontiac, but it was nice to enjoy the nostalgia nonetheless. as we drove home afterward, i kept expecting the cars around us to transform into giant robots. no such luck. i'm going to have to go dig up the vhs tape of the animated transformers movie that i bought for my brother one christmas not too long ago. when he dropped his soundwave figure into the creek and it got stuck under this footbridge at the park when we were little, i crawled under there to get it for him. i was completely drenched and dirty but we both liked that toy a lot.

other cartoons that are bedrock to the mythology of my childhood (in no particular order of importance):
voltron
g.i. joe
robotech (characters actually died in this series, which was mindblowing at the time)
teenage mutant ninja turtles (this one is borderline, as i was already in jr. high at the time, but i liked watching it with my brothers)

cartoons that should not be made into live action films:
the smurfs
rainbow brite
beverly hills teens (which for the life of me i can't remember what any of the episodes were about even though i watched it often)

other than that, i've been hanging out with attention hungry pets and watching without a trace reruns. some crazy canadian friends were down here to visit (pictures to come) and they didn't run away screaming to the north during the 4th of july, so that was good.

i remain the friendliest person around the church because i'm not sure if i haven't met this person yet, met them already and forgotten, or met them before and remember what they look like but not their name. blech. i have to credit my time at the restaurant with helping me to be friendly and extroverted. the awkward newness is wearing on me and i am ready to get to know people better.

as i talked to kids before church one morning, i was distracted by another conversation. when i turned around again, they were halfway across the patio, ditching the service. instead of the regular youth sunday program this summer, we are encouraging them to attend the main service. it is not something they are taking to right away, and they usually ditch when this happens. it makes me wonder at what age you transition kids from sunday school to being in the service. or if we should have a separate high school program on sunday mornings at all. or how to help kids to understand that they are part of a larger community than their youth group. after all, what happens when you are too old to go to youth group?