Well after a 3 hour train ride, a 9 hour plane ride, a 5 hour lay over in New Jersey, and then a 3 hour flight to NOLA…we’re back in the States! It was a great trip but I can’t tell you how good the stars and stripes look. TV, Diet Coke, and 3G…god bless America! The next few days are going to be spent catching up on all the stuff that’s been going on since we’ve been abroad, so without further ado…let’s talk “Toy Story 3″ and how this trilogy has forever ruined my closet.

While Jess and I were away in Italy, dodging tour buses and learning the words “No Gratzie” VERY well…Pixar at long last released the full trailer for “Toy Story 3″. This time around, Andy…like the rest of my generation who was around for the original “Toy Story”, is all grown up and is going away to College. Facing the dilemma that I think most of the readers of this blog probably wrestled with as well, ‘What to do with your toys once you’re not a kid anymore?’ Me included.

Watch the trailer below…

Looks pretty great, huh? Well now back to my main point, there’s really only two roads you can go really when it comes to childhood toys. Goodwill…or despritely clinging onto your childhood and trying to expain to your new College roommate why THIS Ninja Turtle is so much cooler than other ones because when you press down his turtle shell he does a “back-flip”. But in reality it usually just lands face first. Which is actually a problem with the slope of the desk, NOT the precise mechanical workings of this Mattel masterpiece. If you can’t tell…I didn’t go the Goodwill route.

Luckily for me though, I went to art school. A place where nerdy collections are encouraged and man-boys are a dime a dozen. Which, true to the stereotype, is the norm in most VFX studios as well. Now why is that? Well Pixar’s new trailer really made me start to realize…they’re partly to blame for an entire generation of pack rats out there!

Think about it. No longer is there only the normal excuse of “Hey, this might be worth something one day!” Which is still to this day why I hold onto all my old Bartman comics. Not because I’m all that big a fan of the pointey haired cartoon vigellante. But because of this simple question. Do you know anyone with the entire origin series of Bart Simpson as Bartman? Nope, me neither. That crap is RARE! And rare means dolla dolla bills.

But I digress, because now thanks to the influance of the “Toy Story” trilogy, there’s also the added pressure of hurting your toys feelings if give them away! This type of anthropomorphic behavior is dangerous damn it. Could your inner child take that type of pressure?! Mine couldn’t that’s for sure! I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I found out one day that I hurt Capt. Picards feelings because I gave away him OR any of his best friends who populated the crew of the playset bridge of the USS Enterprise! Make that NOT so.

So…I hold onto them. And every other toy I could find in my parents attic. Though sadly if I’m honest…there were unintended casualties along the way from child to semi-adult. I still to this day have no idea what happen to my Stretch Armstrong, probably a distant garage sale or a date with a pair scissors to find out the secret to his stretchyness. (Secret: Cornstarch). And I can’t wipe away the atrocities I commited on an entire platoon of GI Joes during that tragic Operation Bottle Rocket of ’89.

How do I go on? Well I take trips to Toys-R-Us to atone for my sins, like many other kids of my generation, and collect everything I can. Vowing never to leave a toy behind again and find a special place on the shelf for each and every one in my man-boy office.

So thank you Toy Story, you taught me the error of my ways. And luckily I found a girl out there who actually encourages this addiction to my inner-child. I guess I just got lucky.

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Well that’s it for today, but man it feels good to post again! I can’t wait to get back to the regulary scheduled blogging. Which shouldn’t be too long from now. But tomorrow we’re back on a plane bound for Indiana, and then it’s a 5 hour drive back up to good old Michigan with our two cats and puppy. So Sunday I’m gonna be pretty much catatonic. But keep an eye out for a bunch of pictures from our wedding and honeymoon. They’re pretty beautiful if I do say so myself, but then again…it’s kinda hard to take bad pictures in Italy.