Bits & Pieces

The Next Title –

Harry Potter And The Really Tired Parents

 

By Kim J. Harmon

 

Yes – I was waiting on line for more than three hours and was up well past midnight last Friday at the Barnes and Noble Booksellers in Waterbury waiting to purchase a copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

I wasn’t alone, of course; there were about 200 other very tired parents doing the same.

This is a phenomenon that has gotten progressively more insane as each book in the series as been published. At the release of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix back in 2003, my daughter and I were able to walk into the store at 11 pm and mill around relatively easily while waiting for our turn (220th in line) to purchase the book.

Last Friday, we were able to sneak into the store at 9 pm and get our number (222nd in line) but at 9:45 pm when I was tired of walking around the store I went outside and saw more than 200 people milling about in the sidewalk waiting to get in. Because of the fire code, the store was only letting people in once people left and after I stepped outside I knew I wasn’t getting back in unless I made up a crazy story about needing to give my daughter some money (which worked).

To tell the truth, though, I may have groused about being tired the next day but seeing my kids so excited about reading is well worth the bags under my eyes. I would wait up all night for a book if it meant my kids would be reading.

And when I saw the little girl who was first in line walk out of the store at about 12:10 pm, all decked out in her green dress and Harry Potter glasses, clutching the book to the chest and sporting one of the biggest smiles I have ever seen – well, that was just wonderful.

“I read Billy Martin’s autobiography and when I woke up the next day I beat the hell out of my pillow.” – Lefty Gomez

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In order to get to the book store last Friday, I had to leave the Connecticut Babe Ruth 10-year-old state championship game between Newtown and Woodbridge at Rogers Park in Danbury.

The game started at 7:30 pm and I figured I would get in two, maybe three, innings before I had to hop in the car and hustle back to Waterbury.

It didn’t work out that way.

In one of the wildest first innings I had ever seen (on any level), Woodbridge scored four runs in the top of the first and Newtown came back with eight runs in the bottom of the first. It took more than 45 minutes to play the frame.

And it wasn’t because the kids – as one might expect of young players – were making mistakes, dropping balls and throwing balls away. No, these kids were hitting the ball and hitting it hard into the gaps and down the lines.

It was a terrific display of offensive baseball on both sides.

Too bad I had to miss the thrilling middle innings and the tense conclusion but at least the local kids won.

“He struck out three times and lost the game when a ball went through his legs. Parents swore at us and threw things at our car as we left the parking lot. Gosh, I was proud. A chip off the old block.” – Bob Uecker on his son’s Little League experience

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Video games are not always a bad influence.

I have tried to encourage my son to play sports other than basketball (his favorite) – like tennis. He is pretty athletic and I think he’d like the individuality of the sport but he shot me down because, basically, the game was just too foreign to him.

Baseball he understands. Football he understands. Soccer he understands … but hates.

Tennis? What is that?

Well, once he spent a half hour or so playing Top Spin on his uncle’s XBox he fell in love with the game of tennis. All the lines on the court still perplex him a little, but now I think he’s willing to try the sport and all because of a video game.

“In the past (sports) video games wanted to look like TV. Now TV  wants to look like video games.” – Greg Lassen, senior director of interactive and electronic licensing for the National Basketball Association.

 

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I swear – I’m gonna’ move to South Dakota of Wyoming ... someplace where they have never heard of the words TRAFFIC JAM. Driving in to work on I-84 was a nightmare on Tuesday because the tractor trailer accident at Exit 14, but the traffic was equally bad on Wednesday and FOR NO APPARENT REASON.

On second thought, I’m going to move to Montana where there is no posted speed limit on some of the roads. In the time it takes me to go 20 miles in Connecticut I could race across half of Montana. That would be fun.