They really only want us to be happy

phone_purseA friend shared an article recently on the psychology of happiness; how experiences matter more to our long-term joy than material items.

Good thing this wasn’t one of those list articles. You know: 17 ways I’d know happiness if it hit me like a city bus. Or a quiz to determine how much of a hipster/vegan/gangsta/foodie, I am. I’d have forgotten it by now. And then we’d have no blog.

This article probably stood out because it was the first thing I read on my newly upgraded phone that is roughly the size of a clutch purse.

No, it wasn’t lost on me that I was reading an article about experiences mattering more than material items on the very gadget for which I’d probably be ignoring my family all weekend.

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This is exactly why we can’t have nice things

ironman copyMike says he can’t remember his dreams, but when he does, he’s sometimes running from the law. I imagine he’s not remembering why he’s on the lam because his subconscious is taking the fifth.

Ironically, those of us around here most likely to have something weighing on our conscience are also the ones with completely pleasant dreams we do remember.

“What’s that word for being in the middle of a dream where you realize you’re actually dreaming?” Jack asked me this afternoon.

I’d forgotten there was such a term, so I looked it up. It’s a lucid dream.

Anytime I have a dream where I realize I’m actually dreaming, I immediately try to do one of two things: fly like superman, or ask Tony Stark if he’s in the mood to come up to my place for a nightcap.

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Techno tourists

phone copyMom recently had to buy the book IPhone for Dummies after she switched out her flip phone for the latest, slimmest, whiz-bang of a contraption this side of Seattle. At the time of purchase, the T-Mobile sales guy was in the middle of settling the kind of domestic dispute that can happen when the Friends-and-Family plan becomes the Who-the-Hell-Signed-Up-Deadbeat-Uncle-Lou plan, from which considerable angst tends to spring.

They don’t advertise that particular plan.

When mom switched up phones, we were all pretty excited for her. I mean, think of the aps she’ll be able to use, to, um…  do her yardwork, or read her mystery novel of the month club selection…

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