Death By Helium

Wow.
New Year's is always more fun than most days, but I think this New Year's was particularly chaotic. Maybe it was the flaming pumpkins being flung around by a giant catapult. Maybe it was the bonfire bigger than my house. Maybe it was my boyfriend inhaling too much helium and passing out behind my friend's shed. I don't know. But I do know it equalled pure, undiluted havoc.

You know, here in New Mexico we sometimes take a different approach to life. There isn't that much to do, therefore, we are more amused by less conventional entertainment. Pumpkin flinging, for example. Or elaborate fireworks wired up to create explosions that would make the N.S.A more than a little jumpy. As I watched a four-by-seven foot board rigged up with fireworks get lit, I wondered what exactly was going to happen. But I only had to wait a few seconds to see exacly why everyone was standing forty feet away from it, looking upwards. I saw what happens when a smorgasbord of explosives gets set on fire.

Usually, my New Year's experiences kind of suck. Last year I sat in a room with my two closest friends and drank grape juice when the clock struck twelve. But this year was fun enough to be scary. Even simple entertainment like inhaling helium turned exciting when, in the midst of everyone talking in chipmunk voices, I turn around to see the boyfriend close his eyes and fall straight backward. He knocked over over a giant bucker of water, landed on the ground, and caused everyone to drop their balloons and start freaking out. Now who said balloons were no fun?

Sometimes I wonder why I get such a kick of dumb stuff, like big sparkly explosions and people getting knocked out. And then I realize...Because it's funny.