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PholkTales: Phishy Coincidences

Weee'reee Baaaaaack! And with that note, let the phishy coincidences begin. The beginning seems like a fine place to start and it was on August 14th 2002. Phish announces the hiatus is over. It's six days until my 22nd (and golden) birthday. Shortly after we inherit a new roommate. Time passes, holiday tickets are a pipe dream, but they announce February tour and things are looking up. I hit Vermont for the holidays to visit family and old friends. In the meantime the newest roommate decides to sleep with the head-roommate's ex-girlfriend. Needless to say, he got the axe, and THAT'S when things really started getting phishy.

A short girl from Massachusetts comes though my town to visit an old bud from high school and be on her way. She was just coming through town on a road trip that would end somewhere in Colorado or Utah as soon as things fell into place. WELL... since we had just booted one roommate, we had room for a fresh one. Since I have plenty of friends around town I had job connections and within a couple of days, this girl, who was just passing by, had a new bartending job and a spot in our loft. Granted, she's the coolest new friend I've made in while... I knew her for about 5 minutes until it felt like we'd been friends our whole lives.

So I get a pair of tickets over the phone to the LA show and that's it. Exactly six months since the hiatus announcement was made. I'm gonna give my extra to my ride to the show and then hit up Las Vegas without any tickets. Two days before LA our new roommate gets a visitor from Atlanta. Same story with this kid, I'd known him for 5 minutes = my whole life. We go out on my deck to have a smoke and start talkin Phish. I mention that I don't have any tickets for Vegas and he's on top of it. Cell phone comes out, auto-dial is pressed, and within about 45 seconds I've got a Saturday night!

A couple hours later, my friends from Portland, OR show up to hear my good news about scoring a Saturday night. Tubes went around, doobers went down, and by 5am we were on the road from Tahoe to LA. I passed-out the first half of the trip and wasn't worth much more once I woke up. I drank hard the night before because I couldn't calm down at all. So we run loads of errands around Inglewood... banking mostly, major pain the ass and then we make it into the lot.

Ahhhhhh! Hooooommmmme! Beers and bowls pronto, high fives to friends and strangers alike... we're back baby! Friday went off without a hitch, Possom to get the second set going, a long awaited Oh Kee Pah... Then we hit the road for Vegas, stopping about half-way and passing out in the desert.

Saturday we checked into the hotel, dicked around for way too long and went into the lot. Soon enough my little roomie Lisa was popping up with a mail order extra for me. Molly and I got together before the first set... I hadn't seen HER in a couple of years, and then Boomer and I got together after the show... the three of us were a sight to be seen on the strip that night! Llama, Ice, Antelope... Ghost (first in 871 days!) > Free...

7:30am comes around and my eyes shut. 2:30pm comes around and they open again. We hit the 4:20 from inside the car on the way to the lot. Upon arrival, calls are made and it sounds like my Sunday night is lagging. Tickets weren't as abundant as on Saturday night so I get to worryin a bit. Around 7pm my new roommate's friend from Atlanta shows up and we go to meet his friends and snag my ticket. When we found his friend she didn't have them. Weak. Although, NOW it feels like a REAL phish adventure. The shit's hitting the phan, and there's only an hour until showtime. Turns out she left my ticket at the hotel. So this girl, goes bombing back to the Monte Carlo, snags my ticket, comes back about 10 minutes before showtime and the rest is phishtory. In and out of DWD three times...

After the show, I did my goodbyes with the crew I went down with and hooked up with my roomie and we hit the road for the 8 hours between Vegas and Tahoe. But REMEMBER: All of this started with something that seemed so horrible: One of our roommates slept with an ex-girl and had to get kicked out of the house. But if that hadn't have happened: I wouldn't have met Lisa, I wouldn't have met Lisa's friend Scott, and I wouldn't have had Scott to score me tickets for both nights of Vegas. Everything happens for a reason and all in good time.

That's what Phish is for me: the ending of coincidence.

- Carl Joseph