**To see pictures from my trip click here.

Going to the inauguration of the first African American president meant a lot to me and my family.  Being of mixed ethnic decent, this is the first time I have been able to identify with a United States president.  For my father, being an African American man who was born in the segregated south, this was a day he hardly imagined would happen in his lifetime.  Aside from race, I am also deeply inspired by our new president’s message of hope for our nation.  For the first time I am excited about politics in a way I have never felt before.  I am so thankful to have been a part of this glorious day in history.  The feeling of unity and camaraderie amongst those who attended was amazing.  I have never felt so close to my fellow American. 

January 19, 2009 –

Me and my dad got through lines that wrapped around the building to pick up our purple tickets.  I quickly twittered how I felt about the whole experience saying “feeling like Willy Wonka with my golden ticket to the inauguration (except it’s purple lol)!!!!” and The Huffington Post later quoted me.  Click here to check it out.

January 20, 2009 –

Fortunately, I was born to a family of stealth ninjas because that is the only way I can explain how we made it into the purple section of the inauguration.  We waited in line for 4 hours in what was more like human corral areas than lines.  The large mass of humanity waiting to get in was incredible!!!  I must say that I have never been so physically close to strangers in my life.  The beautiful thing about the whole situation was that even though people were frustrated about waiting for so long, everyone was generally in good spirits.  People were just so happy and hopeful!

Luckily, my dad was paying close attention at all times to where we needed to be to get in.  As soon as he got word that we were in the wrong section, he had us hurry to get to the right place.  If we had hesitated to move, we probably would not have made it in.  In the end, we found our way to the purple gate before they stopped letting purple ticket holders in. It definitely was NOT an easy feat to achieve, but we persevered. The main problem was that the actual location where they let us in, was not clearly marked. They also didn’t let us know that they intentionally weren’t letting purple ticket holders in early because they didn’t want us loitering so close around the vicinity of where President Obama was going to be located during the inauguration for security reasons (as I found out from my uncle who was texting me news updates as we stood in line).

Overall, I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything in the world, even the hardships of getting in. It is a story I will be telling my children and grandchildren one day who will be born into a world where having a person of color as president is truly possible.  So all of the confusion and struggle to get in was worth it. We witnessed history.

I just downloaded a blogging app for my iPhone! Super juiced about it. I’m hoping this will cure my horrible habit of not blogging on a regular basis. Oh yeah and happy new year everyone!! I’m so excited about this year. I’m always excited about the new year, but this year looks like there will be a bunch of amazing things happening. For one, we have a new, particularly monumental president! (I am honored and blessed enough to be going to the inauguration. There will be a seperate blog for that trip!) I’m also very excited about my solo project. We’re doing another show on February 6th. (9pm at El Cid in LA…please come out!). This will be our first show playing with not only me and Jon Ilaw on guitar, but now also Bucket Baker on percussion and Siggy Sjursen on bass! We rehearsed for the first time all together tonight and it was ridiculous…these guys are amazing! I’m so happy to be working with such great musicians.

Well that’s all for tonight folks. My next blog will be straight from DC as history goes down!
xoxo,
Felice

How on earth did I let the whole summer and almost fall roll by without blogging!?!  That’s nuts.  I had a bunch of changes going on.  A move to a new apartment that took up much of August until the beginning of September.  It’s so hard to find a place in LA!  But I finally found a quaint little apartment and I’m all settled in now.  I had my birthday in September (woooohooooo!!) which doubled as a housewarming. 

Let’s see….my songwriting slowed down a bit on account of all the changes and moving around, but I have been keeping up with writing in general (i.e. poetry, thoughts, fiction, whatever) on a regular basis.  Gotta keep exercising the muscle!  Just started getting back into the swing of things so new songs are a-comin’.  The past several months I’ve been really focusing on recording and rehearsing.  My guitar player, Jon Ilaw (shout out to Jon! haha), have been putting together a nice little acoustic set as we get ready to put together a full band.  As a matter of fact, we have our first show coming up.  It’s nothing too big, just a 30 minute acoustic set this upcoming Tuesday.  I’m very excited!  Can’t wait to show everybody what we’ve been up to. 

Here’s the details about the show:

Date:      Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Time:      7:30pm-8:30pm

Location: El Cid (4212 W Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA)

Well that’s all for now folks…well I’m sure there’s more, in fact I know there is more, but it’s just about past my bed time! 

Promise not to disappear for so long!!!!

I finally got around to editing and posting this video of me and Jean-Marie in the studio. Man I have a new respect for people who edit reality shows! It takes some serious time to go through all that footage!

I have no idea why I have the habit of not blogging for a month and then the day I start blogging again, I go crazy and blog more than once in one day hahahaha

anyway…I just found this pic of me and Niki Jean (Crybabies) from 944.com at an Interscope party we went to a few nights ago. I thought it was cute so I thought I’d post it. That’s all! See you all in month! (j/p I’ll be back sooner than that )