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"Welcome to Oregon! Now Please, Leave Us the Hell Alone."
Maybe that's a tad too harsh to ever be adopted as the new state slogan, but it's more honest than whatever we have now. ("She flies with her own wings"? What does that even mean?) Oregonians are, by nature, a reclusive species. It comes, quite literally, with the territory. After all, no one moves to a place with this many trees if the notion of hiding from the world doesn't sound at least a little bit appealing.
It's not just a theory. A survey conducted earlier this year found that the Pacific Northwest is a magnet for hermits and introverts. Not only did 40 percent of the respondents say they have no interest in making new friends, half confessed they don't even care to hang with the friends they already have.
It's not that we're antisocial, exactly. We're just exceptionally comfortable with the idea of being by ourselves.
To put it another way: While the rest of the country is afflicted by the fear of missing out—that thoroughly modern anxiety that someone, somewhere, is having fun without you—we have no problem skipping even the parties we've been invited to.
We don't feel FOMO here. Instead, we're imbued with high levels of JOMO—the joy of missing out.
Even if you belong to the other half of the equation, the statistics say your text messages are about to be left on "read." This is hibernation season in Portland. And if you're someone who's not comfortable being alone, well, you better get used to it.
That's why we've dedicated this issue to the glory of the great indoors. We reviewed the best Portland-made blankets and mapped all the specialty instant ramens at Korean grocery H-Mart. We spent a half-day binge-watching rare Portland movies, including classics Bongwater and Brain Smasher…A Love Story.
Because Oregon has the second-highest number of telecommuters in the country, we put together a guide to working from home without succumbing to cabin fever. And we investigated the millennial obsession with houseplants, the trend keeping 20-somethings connected to nature without having to, y'know, actually having to be out in nature.
Silence your phone, bury yourself in Pendleton and grab the remote—we're staying in tonight, and it's going to be awesome.
Five Portland-Made Blankets, Reviewed
How to Work From Home Without Losing Your Mind
The Great Oregon Movie Binge Watch
Four Portland Delivery Services You Might Not Know About
Millennials on Social Media Are Driving a Nationwide Houseplant Boom