Jan 15

Jan 15 A First Timer’s Daily PITS Journal: Playing in the Sand With Dead & Company 2020

A little background: I’m bad at acronyms. I didn’t know what JRAD was for the longest time, and thought CATS must be some cool jazz group. I certainly didn’t know what this “PITS” thing was that people kept talking about. Turns out JRAD (Joe Russo’s Almost Dead) is now my favorite dead-based band, and CATS turned out to be Neal Casal (and Friends) incredible super-group, “Circles Around The Sun.” And PITS? Well, Playing In The Sand is only the dream destination for almost every Deadhead walking on the face of the planet.

My friend Sam, who often dons an inflatable T-Rex costume, whether she’s at a show or the bowling alley, started working on me last year. The way she described it made it a no-brainer: an all-inclusive tropical resort filled with our Deadhead brethren, featuring 3 nights of Dead and Company and other great bands, and all sorts of shenanigans. She described dancing to the show while on beach with with tropical drink in hand, surrounded by her Lucky Fucker clan (this is a thing, apparently).

She kept saying things like, “It’s life changing! You need to do this!”

“Yes!” I said, already envisioning myself, Pina Colada in hand, sashaying in a sea of tie dye, “I’m in!”

And then she told me the price. My jaw dropped.

“But it’s all-inclusive and includes 3 shows”, she added brightly.

I started putting some money away every month for a year. When my non-Deadhead husband told me he knew I needed to do this, I sealed the deal. Since the resort packages sold out faster than you could say “Muerte”, allowing alumni got first crack at the pre-sale, I was lucky enough to be matched up with the friend’s friend. She asked if I minded staying at The Grand, which is the ultra luxury resort housed within the Moon Palace property. Let me think about that for 1.5 seconds. YES, Please!

And so now I’m on a plane somewhere over the Rockies, headed to Cancun, feeling like I climbed one of those mountains below to actually arrive at this day. The anticipation alone is hard to describe if you’re not a hardcore Deadhead. So far, for me it’s like this: We thought GD 50 was it: a lifetime of Deadheaded-ness culminating on a mountaintop of celebration for what has been. And it was indeed the sweetest love fest and reunion. And then came Dead and Company, and PITS, and this feels like not only what has been, but also like what is.

Since GD 50, so many of us have re-found our people. I’ve always been a Phil-hound, and found a beautiful community in the early 2000’s through Philzone.com (you know who you are, Zoners!) and since then I’ve found even more beautiful odd people (Sunday Night Dead Show, Seattle Deadheads, PITS crew, Charlie and Dawn, Seattle Deadheads) to call my family. And many of them are coming to PITS for another love-fest.

So tune in, and experience some of the What Is with me. Hopefully, each day this week I’ll be able to do even a little entry. Check out tomorrow DAY 1 of PITS, 1/15/20.