This was it. There was just a feeling in the air of "final day." I don’t really know how to describe it, other than it seemed like everything was saying, “today is the final day.” Also, the almost consistent rain contributed to the gloomy, final day feel. I know some of the artist are ready for a break, but me... I would love to continue! I'm so sad about it all ending...
Today we celebrated a little for JP’s birthday... we hung birthday banners all over the bus, gave her a little present and brought along our favorite cookies (Cookies By Design) for the big day... but since we knew that we would still be touring today, we planned a big party for her in a few weeks. Today she is a whopping fourteen years old! Amazing! I am so excited for her. Fourteen was a great age for me and, Lord willing, it will be for her too. After that, we did a bit of merch set up (okay... here's the only thing I will be happy is over!) and then off to Jam Church. Our Tour Pastor, Bobby, gave the final message. It was so cool to see him standing in front of everyone on the last day... wearing one of my t-shirts. I was floored and totally honored. We really grew close over these twelve weeks. Bobby gave me extra time every day, praying over me before each time I stepped on stage, giving me council and encouraging me. He's such a godly man. I feel privileged to have met and gotten to know him. After the message, there was a mandatory tour meeting where we all were given a “yearbook” of Winter Jam. Everyone stood up and said a little bit about how much they appreciated the tour. The nice thing was how everyone applauded when Eddie said, “we have all grown to love the Pierre family.” That just made my whole family and me feel so special. Then Michael Tait called us out specifically, telling everyone how much he appreciated us. We really became like a family to all these different bands!
The show went by fast. I tried to watch as many of the sets as I could, knowing it was my last chance. By the end of the night, we were all getting final photos, saying our goodbyes and praying with each other. It was very sad to see everyone go. Like I’ve said previously, I'm grateful that I get to see them again soon, but as I walked out to my bus, in the cold rain, I was so happy to had been given this amazing opportunity! I will never forget Winter Jam 2010!
I would like to thank NewReleaseTuesday.com for allowing me to be their official blogger of Winter Jam 2010. It has been so much fun and I am so excited that every day of this tour has been accounted for! Thanks to all of you, who are reading and writing back, for following me along this amazing journey! If you would like to continue checking out what I am up to, you can follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or simply my website where I have new blogs, photos, and video first! (I will leave those addresses at the bottom of my blog.) Well, God bless everyone, and thanks for your support... especially NewReleaseTuesday.com!
And finally, before I go, my last random fact: did you know that mailing an entire building has been illegal in the U.S. since 1916 when a man mailed a 40,000-ton brick house across Utah to avoid high freight rates?
Today I am in Normal, Illinois. I hear that the majority of people who live here are normal, but we will see. (JK) I guess that Illinois cities can have weird names... like Normal, or how about Oblong. I mean, no offense, but I wouldn’t want to be known as Oblong! So the big joke here in Normal is this: many years ago, the headline for the newspaper read like this, “Normal Women Marries Oblong Man.” I’m serious! Supposedly that actually happened. LOL. Okay, all you normal people... kidding is over. Tonight is going to be so fun because my grandparents, on my dad’s side, finally got to come out and see the show. Here they've been seeing the photos and hearing the stories for three months now, but they've never been out to see one until tonight. They were blown away! They are not really "in the know" when it comes to Christian music, so tonight was really an eye opener. LOL. It was a great opportunity for them to learn all about the Christian Music scene. I believe that they left the show thrilled. Either way, I’m sure they were very proud of me.
Our last day of basketball wasn’t what we had hoped. I had really pictured everyone out, playing full court, five on five, with everyone having a blast. Turns out, only eight of us showed up. But we played many fun and very competitive last games. I even got roughed up a bit, and went down hard. But looking back over the past twelve weeks, what an amazing opportunity I had to meet and get to know the whole tour better by just simply playing basketball. It was really a bridge for me to get to know not only the artists, but so many of the cool crew guys that I may not have had a relationship with otherwise. It is so cool to think about. The basketball has really been a highlight of so many of the tour days... a great break from the work, an amazing opportunity to play on these fantastic college courts, good, friendly competition, and just a whole lot of fun. I'm gonna miss it.
My sister, Madame President, will be fourteen tomorrow. Scary! She has grown up so fast. She is such a sweet and talented girl! I will be excited to watch her live out one more year. Also, my manager and dear friend, Allan Hardin, will be with us tomorrow! What a fun guy. He has been with me since the beginning. The first time I ever took a bus trip, he and his wife went with us. The last night of the trip we stayed up till four in the mourning playing Wii bowling and laughing our heads off. It’s a time I’ll never forget. LOL. Anyway, tomorrow should be a big day, but I’ll let you know how that goes. And oh, before I go, did you know that Tug of War was an Olympic event from 1900 to 1920?
What a great time we have had here at Ypsilanti! Eastern Michigan University has been so good to us. They allowed us to use their amazing basketball court, which was awesome! There are about 11 of us that have been playing basketball together all tour, so as a parting gift, I gave each of them an Orlando Magic jersey, personalized with their name on the back. (They are so cool!) So today, when we played a mini tournament with teams of three each, everyone was wearing their blue Magic jersey! We looked so good... and very official. Thanks, Eastern Michigan University, for your hospitality!
You can tell everyone is starting to wind down. Not that they are getting tired or aren’t performing as hard, they are just starting to get a bit sad it seems. On this tour, we have all become great friends... almost like family. You can just tell that everyone is now realizing that and that it's almost over. I know I definitely am. It is going to be so sad to go back to school and leave behind all these great guys and gals. But fortunately, I know I will see them all soon. In September, almost everyone will be in Orlando for summer festivals and I'm already planning a big reunion party at my house. I'm so lucky they'll all be there. It will be a blast!
Today has been great. Everything went so well! Unfortunately, tomorrow will be our last day for basketball. We are all kinda depressed about that. Well, until tomorrow... and oh, by the way, did you know that a toaster uses almost half the amount of energy that a full size oven does?
WinterJam 2010: Grand Rapids, Michigan Category:Music Views:
236
It is so much fun to be back in Grand Rapids! Until I was 8 years old, I lived in Michigan, very near the Grand Rapids area. So tonight was great because I had lots of family and friends come to the show! Like I’ve said in past blogs, it is always so nice to have some one that you know in the crowd supporting you... which is why tonight was extra special! In this case, I had my Grandma, my Aunt and Uncle, cousins, friends from my old school, friends from my old church... it was a great crowd and (maybe because I'm from here) I really felt like I was well received tonight by the audience!
Since this is our last weekend out, I was finally able to talk my Grandma into riding the bus with me... at least for one night! She was coming to the Grand Rapids show anyway, to see my Aunt and Uncle, and she just gave in to my asking and asking. It was a riot! She was totally game to try everything and curious to learn how everything works. We had to teach her a lot of bus-living techniques, including how to roll into her bunk. LOL. (We gave her the easiest bunk to learn in... the bottom driver's side...) She seemed like she really enjoyed being with us and getting to experience bus living, even if it was only for one night! We were all concerned for a while that she wouldn’t sleep well, but she slept way longer that I did. It was so much fun to have her aboard with us!
After the show tonight, we stayed up late watching the end of the Xavier and Kansas State game. We were all going crazy when Crawford pulled up from deep to send it into double overtime. My dad and I were jumping up and down, hugging each other. It was crazy! Unfortunately, Xavier lost. It would have been so crazy to have another upset. This March Madness has been full of them!
Well I’m off to bed. I'm so sad that this is the last weekend on tour. I’m not looking forward to going back to school... that's going to be so sad. Let's not talk about that now. Oh, and by the way, did you know that Walt Disney was afraid of mice?
Last night was a long night. Hats off to our amazing bus drivers for pushing through a terrible storm and getting us all here safely. Man, I can’t imagine what driving in some of the storms we’ve had on the road must have been like. I'm sleeping away in my coffin, typically unaware of the intense conditions the drivers are facing. It must be because I live in Florida so I don’t have to deal with things like… snow. Last night, the driving conditions were so bad, that once our bus was free sliding on ice. One of our semi's jackknifed! Praise the Lord no one was hurt! There were cars and trucks in the ditch or turned upside down along the road. It was really bad. Mike's Chair guys looked at the radar and decided not to even make the trip!
But most of us did and began to arrive in Wichita at different times in the late morning. Because of this, we were a little behind schedule and Jam Church , instead of being held at 11:00 am, was postponed till 1:00pm. Jam Church this week was extra special. This week, my dad was asked to preach! My dad is an elder at our church in Orlando and preaches at our church a few times a year when our pastor is away... he's excellent. Today, he preached on what it means to be a "Tupos." Tupos is a Greek word meaning “that which is left after a striking blow.” (like a black eye would be a "tupos" of being punched in the face...) He talked what it meant to leave a godly Tupos, or an imprint, on someone else’s life, and those who had left them on his. He based his message off of 1Timothy 4:12. He talked about how the word “example” is translated from Tupos. He also talked about how, by leaving a Tupos, we are also leaving a legacy. He ended his message by encouraging all of the artists to strive to live a godly life not only on the stage, but more importantly, off of it. It was such a great message to hear.
After Jam Church, Michael Tait finally gave in and told me that today was my day to finally get to jump off the hydraulic lift he uses during his set to do his big stunt. Now he was trying to freak me out, telling me how hard it was and how he was so scared the first time he tried it. The deal was, if I went up, I had to jump... I wasn’t allowed to come back down. So up I went! Man, I didn’t really know how high it was. I give Tait props, he goes up so high, he's almost equal to the beginning of the upper bowl. Then he looks down and jumps into a mass of smoky darkness! When I got up there I was like, “Whoa!” But after I hopped off, it was super easy. Actually, it was a lot of fun. (Michael seemed to be so impressed that I actually jumped without lingering up there for a while.) Thanks Michael, I've been wanting to try that for sooooo long and it was a lot of fun. You're the best!
We had a bit of a problem tonight. Almost four hours before the show started, Mac Powell was still stuck in Houston! (Remember I told you how bad the weather was...) Now a flight from Houston to Wichita is only an Hour and a half long, but the problem was that his flight had been so delayed that there was no way he could make it before his set began. His whole band was here... just no Mac! Everyone was freaking out! I told them I can do a killer Mac impersonation, and was ready and willing to step in, but no one went for that solution. LOL. Somehow, they figured out a way to get him here just a few minutes late. It worked out because we started late to try to give him as much time as possible. Fortunately, he made it in safe and the show went on! Thank the Lord that he allowed Mac safe travel.
Well that ends an eventful day. People in Kansas seemed upset. Must be because Kansas recently lost to Northern Iowa in the March Madness tournament. Trust me, I'm just as upset as they are! My bracket is so messed up. I just wish that somehow I would win our Winter Jam pool. Doubt I will though. Well, I'm headed home and will write again next weekend... the last one! Are you gonna miss me? Oh, and by the way, did you know that Dolphins sleep with one eye open?
WinterJam2010's Blog
