For New Year's Eve, I had a party at my apartment. I've never had a NYE party in my life, mostly because that kind of party tends to be the longest party ever and I'm usually done with partying shortly after midnight. But having only been in Seattle three months, having made a handful of new, reliable friends, I thought a party at my place was the best way to go for the following reasons:

1. I didn't have to figure out what to do that night or where to go or how to get there. Being in a new city and all, I had no desire to try to figure out what my options were or how expensive they might be. Bring the fun to me, I said.

2. My apartment has an amazing view of the space needle, which is where all the fireworks were to be set off. Both from my roof as well as from my bedroom you can see the needle perfectly, so I figured even if the weather was poor, we could watch from inside easily.

The party was very small and intimate - totally different from the large sized bashes i'm used to throwing, in which many preparatory trips to Costco are necessary, but just as fun. The fireworks, however, were very disappointing. You would think that using the Needle as a point from which to shoot them would be really cool, but the end result looked like a water sprinkler. And one of those really sad ones that dribbles water down its post more than squirting it out. Seriously hope that the fireworks over the Sound are more impressive on 4th of July.