Thursday, December 1, 2011

Are We Happy?

In Men's Health Magazine, they rated the happiest and unhappiest places to live. They judged this by unemployment, suicide and households on anxiety meds. 

The tops place to live was Honolulu, Hawaii. My boys love this place! We've never been there. They have a Melissa and Doug puzzle that says the state and capitol. "Hawaii, Honolulu" gets taken out and put in the most; just so they can giggle over the word, "Honolulu." :) To them it's a funny word. I'm not sure why it's so happy there? Could it be the sun? Maybe because it's so stinking beautiful!

Other happy places include:
  • Manchester, New Hampshire
  • Fargo, North Dakota
  • Omaha, Nebraska
  • Boston, Massachusetts
  • St. Paul, Minnesota
Where I live: Omaha, Nebraska ranks number 4. We have no mountains and no beaches. We're smack dab in the middle of the United States.

Counting Crows wrote a song about Omaha and the band never came here prior to writing it. This song was written in 2003, but I like it!




Most people I went to college and grad school with would say, "Omaha, Nebraska? Do you live with cows? What is there to do there?" While it is true that much of Nebraska is filled with corn fields, Omaha is a city. We had a Staycation here this summer and we had more things to do here than we had time for. You can read and view pictures about our Staycation here, here, here, here, here, here and here. Told you there's stuff to do here! We didn't even go to some of our main attractions: Henry Doorly Zoo, Western Heritage Museum, Omaha's Children Museum, Gene Leahy Mall (which is more like a beautiful park with giant metal slides), Old Market, Village Point, CoCo Key Water Park, CenturyLink Center, Rose Theater, Orpheum Theater, Omaha Play House and more.

Maybe we don't need beaches and mountains to make us happy. *Although it would be nice! :)  From Omaha, Kansas City is only 2 and a half hours away. They have a variety of more stuff to do there! We have 4 seasons here. When I get blue from the cold and dark of winter, the sunshine and warm weather is around the corner.

Are we happy? There's a lot that has been going on in our small family unit that has made Daddy and I sort of blue this year. I'd say in general, I'm pretty happy!

The places in the United States that got an F for happiness are:
  • Detroit Michigan
  • Memphis, Tennessee
  • Tampa, Florida
  • Louisville, Kentucky
  • St. Petersburg, Florida (ranked the worst for happiness!)

Crazy that the warm, pretty places like St. Petersburg, Florida ranked high in unhappy individuals! Except for Honolulu, Hawaii, it was at the top for happiness!

3 comments:

Liz Mays said...

I wonder what is so depressing about the worst cities!

I always wanted to move to Minneapolis/St. Paul!

Saru Singhal said...

Really, my brother lives in Fargo and I just moved from Boston to New Jersey. Good to hear that:)

Eat To Live said...

I must live in a very unhappy state and city... I don't even see it or anywhere near by on your list.

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