Oklahoma ranks low on happiness scale

I think Oklahoma is a pretty pleasant place to be, so I looked into Gallup's methodology. They called more than 350,000 people throughout the country last year. Pollsters asked people how things were going in six major categories:

Life evaluation: How we feel like our lives are now and how they will be.

Emotional health: How we feel.

Work environment: Whether we like our jobs and our bosses.

Physical health: How healthy we are.

Healthy behaviors: How little we smoke and how well we eat.

Basic access: How we feel about our community and how accessible health care, food and other needs are.

Missing categories?

These categories encompass so much of our lives, but I think the pollsters left out a few key factors in general well-being.

Thunder: Whether we have the most exciting team in the NBA. (Sorry, Washington.)

Bowling: Whether our major colleges won their bowl games. (Sorry, Connecticut and Arizona.)

Cowboys: The ratio of people who can lasso to those who cannot. (Sorry, New Jersey. At least you win the spray tan category.)

Catfish: How many festivals are dedicated to noodling and how many good restaurants serve fried catfish. Bonus points are awarded for frequent gravy use. (Our only competition for this is Louisiana.)

Friendliness: Whether people wave to or smile at strangers. (Sorry, New York.)

All these things make me happy, even though I can't lasso anything. Next year, I hope Gallup pollsters take these factors into account. But Hawaii might still win. I hear it's pretty great.