I have not had a chance to comment on the election, as I have been working the past few days on some costumes for "That's So Raven." Lisa and I logged 30 hours each between Tuesday at 10:30am and 4:30pm today tranforming 4 Barbie pink bridesmaid dresses into even more hideous Pink Monstrosities. More trim, more flounces, new poofy sleeves, bigger net skirts with sequined embroidered hot pink flowers...these dresses went from merely tacky to Craptastic!!!! While we sewed in the last of the hooks, the producers came by, had heart attacks, and put Raven in a lovely black Sex in the City cocktail dress instead. The End.

How do we get paid? By the hour. Somebody signed off on that original picture of her in a big, pink gown.

If I could figure out how to do the Blogger stupid new "we don't really have a good photo download for Mac users, even though we are Mac users ourselves" you could see the glory of these dresses. I'll just let you imagine. Somewhere Barbie is very, very jealous.

On to the election...

I really thought Kerry would win. I was so damn naive. Looking at the new map Red/Blue, or as Heather Klinke emailed to me this morning (which of course, I can't fucking download) The United States of Canada and Jesusland, I was really struck where the votes went. I seriously considered succession. After reading a bunch of other folks' blogs and my beloved BoingBoing, I am not the only one who feels that way.

I am reminded of a great book I had to read in college called Ecotopia. If it wasn't already packed somewhere, I'd dig it out and re-read it. It is a bit of an earthy-crunchy sci-fi novel, where the West Coast has become it's own country. Some of the theories have come to pass, we now recycle, wear cotton and hi-tech moisture wicking fabrics, use computers, flextime and men help take care of the kids. We are not living in tree houses in free love communes and smoking pot 24-7 (at least here in North Hollywood, I can't speak for Topanga Canyon.)

There was another book whose title escapes me- a non-fiction sociology book about the "Ten Nations of America." The writer wrote for the Washington Post or something, and he broke the USA into 10 socio-economic regions. It ended up including a bit of Canada for the Pacific Northwest Region, Northern Mexico was included in the Southwest and Texas regions, and Florida was in a region all its own that included the Caribbean. Again, it all still rings true today.

I at least feel proud to live in a state that is solidly progressive, even with a Republican governor. In addition to going overwhelmingly for Kerry, we passed a Proposition to fund stem-cell research with bond money. When I lived on the east coast, I lived in blue states. I live with like-minded people who respect my viewpoints. I'm sure people in the red states feel the same way.

The conspiracy theories are starting to surface. I think the churches got out more votes than the college campuses. That's it. The Dems need to find their Carl Rove, and beat them at their own game.