I went to visit a friend in Atlanta over New Year's Eve about four years ago. I planned on celebrating but not getting blacked out. What follows is all recollection of multiple friends.

The evening started out with a visit to the liquor store to pick up a 12 pack of malt liquor 40s, a bottle of vodka, a bottle of bourbon, and a bottle of tequila. This was supposed to be split between me and three other friends and it seemed reasonable as we were already pretty buzzed. I remember taking swigs of tequila, dancing, taking shots of vodka, a few cranberry vodkas, and somewhere around the third or fourth 40 before the New Year it all gets fuzzy.

Apparently I entered black out mode and decided to dance like a madman. That would have been fine enough if it ended there. However, I informed my friend who owned the house that I had purchased a lot of mortar fireworks from South Carolina on my way into Atlanta. He wanted to set some off. I grabbed the first mortar and recklessly launched it down the street as a sort of demonstration of how bad of an idea this was. Nobody processed this, though. We moved into the backyard and started launching fireworks. Neighbors came outside and decided to watch. It was apparently very entertaining for awhile.

I go to drop a mortar and grab the tube in the middle. Suddenly I disappear in an explosion. The neighbors slowly make there way inside unsure if they just witnessed someone seriously get hurt or die. Other party goers are concerned. They start to hear something from the smoke. Laughing. The smoke slowly clears and I'm holding the tube rolling around on the grass laughing. The bottom of the tube is completly blown out below my hand. My friends start laughing. Apparently people who really didn't know us as a group were still a bit concerned so they checked me out and I was unharmed.

I finished the night by throwing up all over myself in bed. I'm not proud of any of this. When they told me in the morning I was shocked. I could have easily been a statistic.