NYE 2010 in Aruba! (Click photos to enlarge)

^The goods... sweet baby Jesus...
Growing up, I've always had a bit of a phobia of fireworks, ever since my mom traumatized us with horror stories of her friends losing hands playing with fireworks when she was a child. Eck.
^what we had to work with...the clear evening sky.

Fireworks make me pretty antsy, but they were able to convince me that everything would be safe and that they were just going to shoot everything toward the water....I was able to stay out to watch a few. I had my camera and tripod set up not too far from where they were lighting the first rocket. They light it and I turn around to see everyone running behind me! LOL. My tripod was set low to the ground, but I got up and ran with them. The rocket ended up exploding into the ground shooting lots of debris right at where I was crouching. Then Diego says, "Oh maybe you shot it upside down!" I'm like, "Oh hell, no! Safe my ass!" haha

Here are some shots we were able to get. Although the covered much more of the sky. The camera was just set up way too close, but this does give one the idea of the danger I experienced. lol.

^Lol. in the last shot it looks like my sister was inches away from meeting her demise.

After letting of 3 huge ones, I'm not talking your bullshit disneyland fireworks and right above my head... I saw shit falling on everyone and I pretty much just boned the fuck out- straight to the house. I actually felt like I was in a war for a minute cuz there were loud blasts and bright lights exploding right behind me. lol. I ran and didn't look back until I crossed the street. I looked up and I still felt like the fireworks were way to close. haha. Yeah. I'm a big vagina, but at least I had the guts to stick around for a while, even though I already had a pre-existing fear of fucking fireworks. I'm much more content watching them from afar. No, I did not feel safe lighting some crazy chinese fireworks with a bunch of amateurs in a foreign country. Sue me. lol.