Always Anna

It was a busy weekend - I managed to cram in hanging out with friends, drinking, seeing Live Free or Die Hard, shopping at Target and Michael’s, eating fabulous sushi, reading a random chick book from start to finish, going out on a friend’s trimaran, and seeing The Police play at Fenway. Everything was great/ wonderful/ amazing/ phenomenal.

All that was great… but I have more important things on my mind. Today, I realized that I actually like Everybody Loves Raymond, a show that I’ve avoided for the past… ummm… however many years it was on. I always thought that the show was too old for me: weird grown-up comedy that married people with kids would enjoy. So does the fact that I like it now mean that I’m old?

I don’t know how to deal with this at all. But, if you’ll excuse me, there’s a second episode on now, so….

After spending the weekend catching up on Books 5 & 6 in the Harry Potter series (in between bouts of extreme drinking), I started reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows yesterday.  Until I finish the book (hopefully by the end of the week!), I will not be tooling around online - I’m terrified of accidentally running across some kind of spoiler.

Yes, I know I’m a huge nerd.  I don’t care. 

See you next week, blog-of-mine!

With the sudden popularity of “green thinking,” you’ve probably been seeing articles or news casts or blog entries lately that talk about how integrating sustainability into the world will be tricky to do without disrupting the economy.  And for every media source that says that, another one pops up saying that being environmentally conscious doesn’t have to mean that the economy falls apart - it just means a change in what type of jobs and products are out there.  Personally, I fall into the latter camp.  But that said, the following questions have to come up at some point in either discussion: Does it matter if being green upsets the economy a little bit?  If so, why?  And if not, why not?

As I caught up on No Impact Man’s adventures in green living yesterday, I found an interesting post about the link between economic ”success” and happiness.  Apparently some people think that being financially successful means you have an increased level of happiness.  But I’d bet that even more people think that they aren’t necessarily related - if money can’t buy love, after all, how can it buy happiness?  Of course money makes some parts of life easier - but if you hate your job, and air pollution makes you sick, and you have no social life, how happy are you really going to be?  So, if money can’t buy happiness for an individual, who’s to say that a country with the strongest economy is going to be the happiest?

Apparently the New Economics Foundation decided to do research into these very questions, and calculated the “Happy Planet Index” (or HPI) for each country around the globe.  The measurements are based on surveys that include questions about job satisfaction, social activities, emotional and physical health, and environmental impact.  It’s a really cool way to look at happiness and see how countries compare to one another… and it’s particularly fun because there’s a quiz you can take online to see how you stack up against people around the world!

Oh, how I love online quizzes.

Overall, it turns out that I am much happier than most people in the US… but still less happy than the world average, which is due to the fact that our country has a much more negative environmental impact on the globe than most other countries. 

So… I’m off to do a little more reducing, reusing, and recycling!

” Every day is an opportunity to make a new happy ending.”

- Anonymous

Two weekends ago, I flew out to Portland, Oregon to visit my sister.  My mom made the trip up from California too, so we had our first non-Christmas-related visit in… god, I don’t even know how long.  We only had four days, but we made them count with lots of food, drinks, and touristy stuff.

Portland was an amazing city - so cool and laid-back, but with a strong current of energy running under the surface.  It was the kind of the city that people migrate to because they’re looking for a big city attitude with a small city individuality.  I loved it. 

These are a few of my favorite things from the trip:

I loved these bumper stickers that we saw everywhere.  Of course, I do love all things weird.

As a life-long bookworm, I was obsessed with Powell’s City of Books - the largest used and new bookstore in the world!  I was also obsessed with their low prices, so much so that I ended up with 10 more books than I left Boston with.  Whoops.

We stopped and smelled the roses in THE rose garden: The International Rose Test Garden in Washington Park.  It’s amazing how much more wonderful outdoor roses smell than hothouse roses. 

While in Washington Park, we also visited the Japanese Gardens - a fabulously tranquil park.

Overall?  I loved everything I saw and did in Portland, and can’t wait to go back and continue exploring.

You know how sometimes you think, “Self, I know you’re really busy, but you really should remember to pay your bills.  And update your blog.  Ooh, but before you update the blog, you need to upload the photos from Oregon into your computer.  And resize them for the blog entry.  Oh, but before you do all that, you need to pack for your trip to the beach this weekend.  Shoot!  I haven’t paid my cell phone bill in two months!  What happened?”

No?  It’s just me?

Well, that was my head all last week.  And I still haven’t paid my phone bill or resized the photos from Oregon.  But I did pack to go to the beach last weekend, and had a ton of fun, so there’s always that.

I’ll be back tomorrow with Portland photos …