The entire semester, I couldn't wait to until Big Cypress. While I am making arrangements on whose car we are taking, when to leave, etc., my mom is starting to tell me that she won't let me go, because she is reading all sorts of warnings about traveling over NYE. So I come home for Thanksgiving amid much controversy at home, and find that there is no FedEx envelope.  I almost died. I turned the entire house upside down looking for my ticket. My parents are helping out to kind of appease me. They start to imply that i may have misplaced it!

 When I retraced my exact steps to both of them, i got no response. Needless to say, I sat and sulked trying to figure out what I could do seeing as I didn't have enough money for another ticket.

Around 9AM my mother wakes me up and drags me into her room. She explains to me that after I had gone to sleep, she remembered throwing out an open envelope that she had found on my desk while cleaning the house. Barely awake, i was kind of angry with her. She didn't want me driving to Florida anyway. Before I could develop this thought any further, she handed me the phone. 

I said hello only to hear "Hi, this is Jennifer from Phish Mail Order. Your mother explained to me what happened. I just need to ask you a few questions to verify this and then we will see what we can do to help" Oh my god! I couldn't believe it. I gave the important info, and Jennifer told me she would see what she could, but they don't usually replace lost tickets. A day later, she calls back and tells me that they are mailing me a new ticket, and that I have a mother that really loves me. Talk about a Thanksgiving.

Now, if anyone is still reading this, the trials and tribulations do not end here. I came home at the end of the semester and could not wait to go. There is a message on my answering machine from my buddy Alex, whose car we were taking. The second he answered the phone, i knew something was wrong. He proceeded to explain to me that he got his grades, and they were a little bit lower than he told his dad. His father gave him the choice of taking the car to Florida or another semester of tuition paid for. This is tough, but there are always other shows, so as much as it killed him, Alex wasnt going to Big Cypress.

This also meant that Poopy, our other friend in the car, and I had no ride to Florida. After the whole ticket incident and months of waiting, Big Cypress is a week away and i have no way to get there. We started calling everyone we knew that was going and posting messages on every E-board around. Poopy and I made a pact that we would only go if both of us could go together. We are having no luck at all. It was already the 27th which was the day we wanted to leave.

My mom walked down stairs to see how my search was going. I told her, with an extremely distressed look in my eyes, it didn't look like i was going to Florida. She just turned and went upstairs, i thought because she didn't know what to say. After a few minutes, she threw me my Dad's car keys and told me I should wait until the morning to leave.

This was crazy. Was she out of her head? I asked her why, and she told me that through this whole ordeal she saw my passion for Phish, and that it was something I truly loved. She told me that when Phish came to play in Philadelphia, she wanted to come we me to the show so that she could see what it was i loved so much.

After this crazy situation, I learned a few things. First, my mother loves me very much and even though she may not agree with everything I do, she supports it because it makes me happy. Second, the people that run the Phish organization really just want everyone to be able to enjoy the music, atmosphere and community of Phish. It is not about the money or the recognition or even the popularity. They just want everyone to be able to share in the groove.

 - Andrew Krimstock