We're Either a Society of Geniuses,....or Something Less Impressive

How lazy can we possibly be? We, of the 1st world countries. (Gross. I feel so arrogant using that term. But, we don't give it a second thought when we use the term "3rd world country". Is that because we're so used to hearing it? And not used to hearing, "I live in America. You know, that one 1st world country"?) Well, I'll tell you how lazy we can be.

If you just take a moment to think about all the (mostly superfluous) ways we make life easier for ourselves, it's really quite astounding. At times, I don't know whether to be proud of ourselves for coming up with the idea for pre-sliced cookie dough, or ashamed.

To show you what I mean, I went ahead and did the strenuous work of sitting at my desk in yoga pants & googling "lazy Americans." After skipping past pictures of socialites and trust fund babies, I refined my search and was much more successful with my results. Below are some examples of our brilliant ideas.

• Resealable cookie packages...because it takes too much time to put the package in a big ziploc bag or put a chip clip around it.
• That feature in cars that allows you to hit it once, take your finger off the button and watch your window roll all the way down...because, I don't know about you, but the little muscles in my index finger begin to get mighty sore if I make it work too much.
• Retractable pens....because pen caps are about as ridiculous as the idea of still using a quill and ink pot. Come on, society.
• E-cards....because putting paper inside paper, writing letters and numbers that may as well be written in code on the outer paper, and then scouring whole cities trying to find a mailbox or post office has to be the most outdated form of communication EVER! (Side note: The company, Some E-Cards, has the most amazing slogan that I wish beyond all wishes I would've come up with: "E-cards; when you care enough to hit send." That's pure brilliance.)
• Little nail-shaped strips that women put on their nails so that they can have "painted" nails w/out having to have actually painted them....because lounging and being forced to be still while you (or a professional. In a nail place. With your feet in warm water. And with one hand flipping through a magazine while the other hand is being worked on.) struggle to stay in the lines, is just asking too much.
• Any of the handy "reading tools" that have (THANKFULLY! And not a moment too soon!) taken the place of those bulky, unnecessary books...because, I swear, I was getting pretty tired of holding those things open and then having to remember to turn the page EACH TIME I wanted to find out more. That's just silly.
• Those womens' razors with the shaving cream built right in. Those commercials have it exactly right: We should not have to put up with slippery bars of soap flying all over the place, or go to the trouble of squirting shaving cream into our hands, THEN putting it on our legs, THEN closing the cap on the shaving cream can, THEN.... I rest my case.

So, it's not an exhaustive list by any means, but it's a start. ("Exhaustive." That makes me think someone should come up with a way for the thoughts in our brains to transfer to the tips of our fingers so that we only have to place our fingertips on the keyboard and the computer's brain then transfers our thoughts to the screen. Jeez. I don't even want to type anything after coming up with that ingenious idea. People - we are so above typing.)

Have any examples of lazy-slash-brilliant ways we've made life easier for ourselves? We're open for comments.... (Wait. That means you'd have to sign up to become a "follower" of our blog in order to post a comment, doesn't it. Forget it. I can't believe I asked that of you. GOSH! Why can't stuff be easier?! Right?!)

Just Michelle