Jordan Rippy

Growing up, I loved the weekends just like every other kid. The school bell would ring at 2:45, mom would be there to pick me up, and thus began the relaxation. Perhaps I would go to a friend’s house on Friday night and stay up late playing some Mario Cart on the N-64 or have the parents drop me off at the Rave for some sweet PG movie action. Saturday, I would wake up around nine or ten (I used to have a hard time sleeping in during the school year because I had to get up so early during the week). Whenever I woke up I would head down stairs and watch the usual NBC Saturday line up which (then) consisted of Saved by the Bell, City Guys, and Hang Time. After about an hour and a half of TV I may doze off again, only to be awakened by a knock on the door from a local neighborhood friend who just wanted to shoot some hoop or go exploring.

But now, not so much. This weekend looks a little more like this:

FRIDAY
8am - Exam
10am - Exam
2pm - Exam
4:30pm - Leave for Orlando
6pm - Meeting in Orlando
10pm-12am - Leading worship at a prayer meeting in Orlando
1am - Arrive back in Lakeland

SATURDAY
8am-12:30pm - Group lesson at Cleveland School of Music (Two more months!)
3:30pm - Leave for Sarasota
5pm - Sound check / Rehearsal in Sarasota
7pm-9:30pm - Lead worship at Victory @ Sarasota
11:00pm - Arrive in Lakeland

SUNDAY
6:30am - Depart for Orlando
7:30am - Set-up, sound check, rehearsal in Orlando
9:30am-11am - Lead worship at The Well
11am-12pm - Tear down at The Well
1pm - Arrive in Lakeland
2pm-8pm - Cleveland School Recital

Bottom line…I’m very tired and I have been sick for like two weeks. Monday I am going to collapse. This has literally been the busiest / hardest semester of my life…Sorry this post doesn’t have the usual humor and entertainment value as usual. You’ll hear from me Monday and I’ll be in a fantastic mood. School will be out. Life will slow down. Keep checking in, because pretty soon I’m going to post about a DVD player I just bought, and it is going to be a gas.

That’s pretty much the one word that can describe the last ten days or so. Last weekend I led worship Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at out-of-town locations. It made for some really early mornings and late nights in the road (as pictured below). I know all of you regular readers have been on the edge of your seat wondering what could possibly be keeping me from blogging over the last couple of weeks. Life. It’s been busy.

Things are starting to slow down. It’s exam week, so while the stress is not completely gone, the class schedule is decreased. I “triumphed” in my first of several exams today. It was class Piano II and it was crazy hard. Yesterday I practiced for hours upon hours. This whole semester has been a complete whirlwind. Not a whole lot going on right now.

Kristin and I had our first laundry-mat experience. We are in the market for a washer and dryer, but have yet to find one. While we’re on that subject, we’re also (still) in the market for a car…Kristin totaled hers a couple of months ago and we have been a one car family since we’ve been married. It has been very manageable since our schedules are fairly similar and Kristin works at the school. However, that will soon change when school ends this Friday.

Back to the laundry mat…It was good fun. It was very hot. Interesting how the laundry mat is like a community. The lady who ran the place said that she had known many of the children who were there since they had been born. Everybody knew everybody. Except us. That’s okay though. We accomplished our #1 goal which was: do laundry. Kristin had a separate goal which was: hold stranger’s children. She succeeded.
Here’s a bit more information about my Class Piano II exam if you care. If you don’t, stop reading. My class piano teacher is nice-ish. She’s not nice but she’s not mean. She takes piano very seriously. More importantly, she takes class attendance seriously. Even above that, she holds practicing the piano as close to personal holiness as one can. Anyway, she doesn’t believe that I even deserve to have hands because I don’t spend enough time practicing…SO yesterday I literally spent hours and hours and hours practicing only to fall painfully short of her standard of perfection in any of the areas in which I was tested. The good news is that it was my last piano class… …

More updates on life and exams to come. More pictures too. I am a firm believer that a blog without pictures is like a traffic cop with no arms. It’s there, and it’s entertaining, but it just doesn’t quite have what it takes to get the job done.

…More on this to come…

Today was our second Sunday at Church at the Well. We had a great day. Last week went okay. It was the whole “figuring everything out” week. This week I think the band felt more comfortable with me and vice versa. Everything flowed a lot better.

The new schedule makes for pretty packed weekends. Saturday nights I lead worship at Victory @ Sarasota, which is about an hour from here. Their service starts at 7:30pm and Kristin and I don’t usually get back to Lakeland until around 11pm. Then we’re up at 5:40am to be at The Well (also an hour drive) by 7:30am for set-up and sound check. We have been handling it well. We really enjoy leading at both places. Next week will be even more jammed, because I’m leading worship at a weekend conference in Sarasota Friday and Saturday night.

Not a whole lot of “blogworthy” topics lately. I have been extremely busy with work and school. Three weeks left in this semester. I am taking a break for a couple of weeks before I start second session summer school. I can’t wait to graduate this fall…

Here are some pictures from tear down this morning.

tran·si·tion - /trænˈzɪʃən, -ˈsɪʃ-/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[tran-zish-uhn, -sish-] –noun

Today was my last Sunday at Victory Chruch @ Lakeside Village. I recently accepted a position in Orlando at Church at the Well. I start leading there on
April 8th (Easter). Lakeside has been a great experience and I have really enjoyed building relationships with such a great team of people. A lot of great things have come from leading at Lakeside.

When I first went to Lakeside nearly a year ago, our drummer left within two weeks. I made a random phone call to a guy I didn’t really know named Drew. Drew and I hit it off immediately and have since become great friends. We were also in dier need of a bassist. I turned to everyone I knew and got nowhere. So, I jumped on my computer. I hopped on Facebook and did a search for “Sotheastern / Bass”. The first name to come up was Josh Swicegood. I called him that evening, intoduced myself, and asked if he could be there the next morning. He showed up [on time] and has been there every week since.

We have had a lot of great times and I will truly miss our first service trips to Burger King. Well guys, here’s to Will Ferrell quotes, A-WOL, Burger King, and Sunday Pie.

Praise Him,

- Jordan

LR: Me, Kristin (vocals), Lauren (violin), Drew (drums), Swicegood (bass),
Hanke (Sound), Scott (Electric)

Ever since I began leading worship from the guitar, I have had a bit of a problem with breaking strings (understatement). Each service almost always involved a broken “G” string (Please, no cheesy g-string comments. That joke is tired.) Lately, I have found myself more often breaking the “D” string. The problem here is that I am moving further away from the already unconventional “G” string break. An “E” or “B” string breaking mid-strum is not all that uncommon, but moving into the woven strings is a whole different level…I am at a loss. I have tried different strings, gages, picks, strum patterns, replaced bridges, and saddles. I have even played for some guitar techs so that they could observe my strumming. I really don’t know where to go from here…David Russell, I fully expect you to reply to this post.

Some of you may know that I am the worship leader at Victory Church @ Lakeside Village. I was extremely tired last Sunday. Friday I made the long hall from Montgomery, Alabama to Palatka, Florida…After a day of visiting with my fiance and her family, I decided to stay with them another night and drive to Lakeland Sunday morning. I have to be at church at 7:30am, which meant I needed to leave Palatka at 5:00am! I had slept in on Saturday so I had trouble falling asleep…Around 2 o’clock in the morning I finally fell asleep. Two and a half hours later my alarm screamed and I jumped into action. Quick shower, shave, and Kristin and I are on our way…About an hour and a half into the two hour drive to Lakeland, I hit the wall. Tired did not even begin to describe how I was feeling. Exhausted, spent, weary, and enervated may be a bit closer. So I pull into the church parking lot at 7:30am and realize the amount of stuff that I have to carry in. Two guitars, back-pack, cables, chord charts, and a change of clothes. “No way I’m getting this all in one trip.” Then, as I move to the passenger side of my car to gather up some of my things, I see it. Like a pool of water in the desert…Like a summer’s rain bringing life to baked and dehydrated vegetation. I looked passed my gorgeous fiancé to gaze upon it’s beauty. I could hardly believe my eyes. “What is it?” Kristin asked. I could not believe the words I was about to utter with such overwhelming joy. “A shopping cart.” I spoke these words with such relief. “A shopping cart?” I could understand her confusion. “From Bed, Bath, and Beyond.” I reached for the cart and pushed it to the edge of the curb by which I had parallel parked. I began loading all of my things into it. There was so much room! Finally, I pulled my change of clothes from the car and hung them neatly on the push-bar. I proudly pushed the cart up the side aisle of the auditorium…Full of everything I thought would have taken me several trips to unload…One trip.

“The Cart” fully loaded

Congrats Zach and Tiffany!

I made this star for the top of Taylor’s (my nephew) tree!

Worship - Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2006

Wednesday Continued - Josh Oswald (Drums)

Kristin - Gotta’ love that ES8!

Tonight my guitar player from church, Tommie, called and invited me to come see Charlie Hall at a neighboring University. I was pretty excited because I have been listening to Hall lately, and really enjoying “Marvelous Light”. Anyway, I was expecting a fairly large event. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it was smaller event. There were only about ninety people there, but the band did a full set. I got the chance to hang out with Charlie Hall and band before and after the show, and I was very impreseed by them. They were so genuine, and we spent time chatting about life, music, and worship. We even grabbed some french toast after the show…Good times. Here are some pics. One of me and Charlie Hall, and the other of Hall’s set list from the evening. Check out their new CD, “Flying Into Daybreak”. Also, keep your fingers crossed, because Charlie has been nominated for best worship artist of 2006!