YES THE LONG AWAITED MOMENT HAS BEGUN!!!! From the eastcoast to the west, PSN services are being released! Here is the recent message from Sony:

"Thank you for your patience and encouragement over the last few weeks. As covered in the post from earlier today, you can now update the firmware on your PS3 and change your password. Kazuo Hirai just announced that we have begun the phased restoration by region of some of the services, starting with online multiplayer functionality.Please note that these services will take a bit of time to be turned on and rolled out to the whole country. The process has begun and some states are being turned on now, so please be patient as we reach your city and state. We?ll be updating the map below as service comes online in individual states. It will take several hours to restore PSN throughout the entire country, so please keep checking back for the latest updates. In the meantime, now?s a great time to get your PS3?s firmware updated, which is required to get online."

YAY!