Last night I was at the Warner Theater for the unofficial Military Ball. A majority of attendees were patients at Walter Reed Hospital, a first-class rehab facility for wounded men and women. One guy pointed to his stomach when I asked what he was being treated for. “I lost 40 percent of my stomach during a roadside explosion.”

No one I talked to was bitter for the last minute collapse in the run of show – which was set to include Jamie Foxx, Nas, Josh Groban and Tiki Barber. Senior-level organizers told me there were last minute contract demands that the modest organizer, United Service Organization, a nonprofit organization could not meet. USO’s mission is to support the troops by providing morale, welfare and recreational services.

All drama aside – which was minimal to say the least, the show went on. And it was a great show. The spirit of the historic nature of the day and the camaraderie of the military was evident.

Check out the story I wrote filed from the fifth row of the show. I don’t know what I would do without the iPhone.

I can’t even believe this all just happened. The swearing-in of 44th President Barack Hussein Obama brought hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people to the National Mall. It was complete mall madness.

I went back and forth between the WWII Memorial and the Washington Monument for better views – and admittedly, in search of better cell service. I was  live blogging and streaming photos to MTV’s NYC headquarters.

And the Inauguration continues. I have to admit, I’m slightly exhausted. This morning I woke up at 6AM and met up with the MTV News crew to head out to Simon Elementary School in Ward 8. I wrote two pieces throughout the afternoon, which you guys can see below.

Other highlights not discussed in the posts? Exchanging words with Usher, interviewing the new Superman (Brandon Rough) and watching Kim Stolz in action. Can you blame me?

A little bit of down time now…then off to get ready for the Huffington Post pre-Inaugural gala at the Newseum. What. A. Weekend.

Check it out. With just my iPhone, I fed the MTV News headquarters in NYC a stream of blog posts and updates. During the concert, I was under orders to submit constant updates. My little fingers typed as fast as they could to get them immediate reactions from the people around me. It was awesome.

Wow, Kim. Though we’ve never met, I have to tell you. Speaking at the rally took balls.

Today, as any day, we need to be indifferent to the uninformed judgement that being gay might bring – and encouraged by the fact that our nation, gay and straight, are organizing against the passage of Prop 8. This is the kind of conversation we need to keep on having, until all of our rights, from Medicare to Marriage to the Military, are equal.

My name is Erica Anderson, and I’m gay and I want the rights, the same 1,069 federal marriage rights and the same equality for those who defend our nation, that others have. It is really as simple as that.

You can check out Kim’s blog here.

From the MTV News Press Release that went out yesterday

****UPDATE: Watch AP’s “BIG ISSUE: ELECTION RESULTS” LIVE web cast Election Night, starting at 7:00PM EST. Here’s the link: http://video.ap.org/v/Legacy.aspx?partner=en-ap 

“Two MTV Choose or Lose citizen journalists will take part in the first-ever Associated Press live streaming online continuous video stream, “Big Issue: Election Results.” Both will report their experiences from being on the ground, covering the youth vote throughout the year. The webcast will be available to some 2,000 Web sites of newspapers, broadcasters and other AP customers throughout the U.S. beginning at 7 pm ET on AP’s Online Video Network at http://www.ap.org.”

Be sure to check myself and Nevada Street Teamer, Michael Gonzales, as we show a few of our best videos and talk about what it has been like to be a part of the MTV-Associated Press Youth Press Corp.

They aired of the first Safe Sex PSAs in ’85, covered the Persian Gulf War in ’91, registered 37,000 new voters in ‘96 and documented genocide in Sudan in ’04.

But now all the focus is on The Hills and Real World, which is why it is hard to believe MTV is still at the forefront of what is relevant to us. With full disclosure, I didn’t realize (until I got this gig and had to become familiar with MTV again), that significant political and social trails are still being blazed. Big ones. Right before your eyes. 

Let me back up to share with you how I came to this post by admitting how sheltered my childhood was – (I did grow up in Indiana).

The year was 1996. Sixth grade. I saw the orthodontists more than my homeroom and was at the primo-awkward stage in life. Yes, it was *awesome. Note that sarcasm.

I was home on a summer day flipping through the channels and my eye caught Fiona Apple’s Criminal music video. I couldn’t help it, I was mesmerized for too many reasons to mention. Fifteen seconds later, my Mom walked into the room. I flipped the channel. She turned it back on — and what followed was total awkwardness.  The next thing I knew, my Mom was on the phone with the cable company, and the channel was blocked. My life would forever be changed.

As I would learn a decade later, the video, Fiona said, was about ”feeling bad for getting something so easily by using your sexuality.” Now that I think of it, it is ironic that this video was about guilt. Something my Catholic upbringing made me all too familiar with.

That was a tragic afternoon but one that has informed, perhaps in the most backwards way, my adolescence and now young adulthood.  The irony is that ten years later, MTV has come back into my life.  If my Mom were here to share this adventure with me, I’m sure she would be proud. And here’s why.