Living in Portland it’s hard not to get caught up in the save-the-world-eat-organic-all-the-time lifestyle. We shop at farmers’ markets, wear organic cotton and like to spend paychecks on things that are environmentally friendly. My editor over at Matador Trips, Tim Patterson, recently wrote an excellent article on Patagonia (the place and the apparel label) where he used a great term for this whole phenomenon: yippie. What is a yippy? A yuppy-hippy of course, a category that I and a lot of my acquaintances fall into.

Being a yippie has recently made me aware of the BPA (Bisphenol A — let’s put it this way, it’s bad for you) controversy, which subsequently led to my purchase of this trendily designed Sigg bottle. It’s 100% recyclable aluminum, which makes me feel great and all, but since when did spending more than $10 on a water bottle seem like a normal thing to do? Maybe it’s not normal, but then again it’s not really normal to have a population running around with elevated BPA levels now is it?

At least my water bottle looks cool, it’s a good example of simple but functional Swiss design and I got to use my REI dividend. Like I said: yippy.