Madic, Ninja Turtles, and the loss of action figures...

The other day I had the intense urge to go on an adventure. Life had become pretty mundane, I would go to work, go home, do a little workout, read a little, blog a little, go to the twins' house, not sleep, get home at 6 am and sleep until 9 am, then off to work again. I've been repeating this routine ever day for the past two weeks.
But, one night, I didn't have to go to the twins', so I was itching to do something new. I called up Madic and he picked me up for work. Here's the thing though... there is nothing to do in my town. Everything closes at 6 pm or 8 pm and I get out of work at 9 pm. So I got the idea to hop state lines and go to the Walmart in New Hampshire, they close at midnight. That's right friends, my idea of adventure is to go to Walmart... what is my life coming to? 
Our purpose? Buy new Ninja Turtle action figures. This is something of a tradition with Madic and me, we buy each other Ninja Turtle paraphernalia. It started when we first met in the fifth grade. Madic was visiting my school to see if he wanted to transfer there. He was an awkward kid, tall and gangly, and extremely nervous about spending the day in a classroom with strangers. We sat near each other, somehow he thought we had met before (we hadn't) so he felt a little more comfortable talking with me. And then he said it, he loved Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. We plunged into a long discussion about who our favorite turtle was (Michelangelo), the awesomeness of Splinter, the fact that I was ten times cooler than April, and how, ok, maybe I was a little bit in love with Casey Jones.
At the end of the day I told Madic that if he didn't transfer to our school I would beat him up.
From there our friendship has blossomed around Ninja Turtles, as well as our love of playing pranks, getting away with doing absolutely nothing in school and running all over the world. For all of his major birthdays (and when I feel bad that I've missed a birthday) Madic has received some sort of Ninja Turtle. One of my favorite things is our matching Ninja Turtle quilts - something we both realized we had in sixth grade. Meant to be.

So we head to Walmart. We enter the toy area, which seems to have shrunk since the last time we graced its aisles. We look around. There are no action figures. There are doll-like things, foot tall Iron Man figurines and poorly made transformers. Oh, and wrestlers. Why are there always wrestlers? How many little kids watch wrestling really? Especially when you compare it to how many little kids (and big kids, come on, you know you still watch it) watch ninja turtles. Seriously.
Madic and I stood there, glancing at the toys, glancing at each other. The whole basis of our friendship in question. Walmart didn't sell Ninja Turtles? Not only that, they do not sell Batman, Superman, Spiderman (but that's ok, who likes Spiderman?). Come on! These things are timeless. You cannot trade them in for something new! And does this change  in toy trends mean that the classic superheroes - some that have been around since the 30's - are finally being phased out? This thought upsets me. I am now on a hunt to get everything super hero/ninja turtle related and properly educate my nieces and nephews.

Hmm... can you tell I grew up with all brothers? Yeah, no barbies for this girl.