August 13th, 2018

These are currently my favourite pens.  Yes I have favourite pens. Kind of crazy I know but still there it is. I have always, as far back as I can recall, had writing implements that I preferred to use and these are the ones I favour now.

I found them about two years ago at my local Dollar Store. I love that place.  I just speaks to the frugal in me.  I don't even recall what I was looking for that day, a measuring spoons maybe? I did buy a set of red ones there our first summer in this house.  I still use them too.  So maybe it was that visit.  Whatever the reason, while I was in the store, I wandered around a bit. Up and down each of the aisles, just looking to see what there was to see, making mental notes for future reference, and I saw the pink pen.  It probably caught my eye just because it was so different from all of the other pens. It was pink and sparkly and heck, it was only a dollar, sure why not.  The pen that held my favoured status up to that point had recently run out of ink anyway and needed to be replaced.

The old pen came from the Land Title office where we signed the mortgage documents for our Colorado house.  I honestly could not tell  you if they gave me the pen or I accidentally walked off with it.  I hope it was the former.  It was a great pen for all that the ink was blue. I honestly prefer black ink but oh well.   It had a nice shape and size for my hand and it rolled so smoothly across the paper.  It just suited me perfectly.   It sat in the pencil jar on my desk in the kitchen of the  Colorado house for ten years.  I used to to write grocery lists, sign birthday cards,  address envelopes and write myself an occasional memo for all of those ten years.  It's no wonder that it was running out of ink.

I was excited to try out my new pen.  It was slimmer than the Land Title blue ink pen so actually it fit my hand just a little bit better.  It also glided across the paper perfectly, no skips, no blots and hurrah! the ink was black! I was so happy with my new pen that I went back and bought more.  In fact, that day I bought every single one that they had.  The next time we went back to Colorado, I brought all of those pens and sprinkled them around like fairy dust.  Everyone received a pink sparkle pen!  Use this pen and think of me, I said.  I'm sure they thought I was a little crazy but actually come to think of it, these are people who already know me. This was not a surprise.

I am not the only person who uses my pink sparkle pen.  I've seen Tim sitting at my desk here in the kitchen of our Florida home signing official documents of one sort or another, using my pink sparkle pen. I told you, it's a nice writing pen!  And I must be doing a lot more writing these days because my first pink sparkle pen just ran out of ink.  In only two years!  Wow!  So back I went to buy another.  The thing about a Dollar Store is that their inventory changes constantly.   I hoped that they still had pink sparkle pens.  Cautiously I approached the stationary aisle and held my breathe.  No worries.  Lo and behold, not only did they have the pink sparkle pen they also had green and purple!  I bought all three!

Theoretically,  I am set now for six years with sparkle pens.  I confess that there is a small downside to these pens.  Those little sparkly bits on the outside occasionally fall off.  I often find, later in the day that one of them has landed on my leg or my arm and is clinging there.  I occsionally pick a single sparkle off the chair or the countertop.  Minor inconvenience.  And frankly, in my opinion, everything is improved with a little sparkle.

While I've always had a favourite pen, the top of the top, the best of the best,  was in high school, when my father gave me my first fountain pen.  Oh how Ioved that skritching sound as I formed the words.  I had to learn to write all over again. Fountain pens are beautiful writing implements if they are used properly.  They have to be held at just the correct angle and with the write amount of pressure.  It's a fairly light touch. If you press too hard, it blots.  The fountain pen was so deliciously fussy.  I am not certain why that appealed to me but it did.  The pen cap had to be used every single time.  I don't  think there a single pen that we own in this house right now still has it's pen cap. Why?  It's unnecessary on ball point pens. As if it were merely part of the packaging.  But on a fountain pen, if it isn't properly capped when not in use, the ink will dry up or leak.   I think I loved the entire ceremony of drawing more ink up into the barrel most of all.  I suspect that it all made me feel as if I were a "real" writer.  Yes my aspirations went back that far.  I carried that pen with me everywhere.  And then someone stole it.  Yup.  Right off my desk at school. I suppose it was my fault for leaving it on my desk with my papers and books when I tottered off to the rest room.  When I returned it was gone. I was devastated.

In later years, I recall another favourite pen that I used at work.  This one was when I worked at Hospice in the administrative office.  It was an unusual looking pen. The outside was very pretty.  It was reminiscent of an old botanic print.  Anyone who "borrowed" my pen from my desk would be chased down, by me, if they walked off with my pen.  I had no problem at all, tracking that pen all over the building if necessary,  and rescuing it.  And I did not care who it was who lifted the pen either.  It is my pen and I want it back, thank you!  I even announced one day when I was searching for my missing pen, AGAIN, that who ever took it would be found because I will l (and I quote myself) "hunt you down like the dog that you are".  The pen was later secreted back to my desk mysteriously.  I don't know why I am so possessive of my pens.

A few years ago my sister gave me a beautiful pen from Brighton jewlery.  It's smooth and shiny black with a sparkly band around it's middle.  It came in a very soft little sack that was made specifically for this pen.  It lives it in a zippy pocket of my purse and only seem to use it for very special important paperwork.  Silly I know, but gosh I love that thing. I guess I want to have it forever.

Paper however. I don't seem to care abut at all.  And in fact it's kind of bizarre that I am so particular about what sort of pen I write with when I don't seem to care at all what I write on.  I write on the backs of envelopes, whatever freebie notepads Tim gets in the mail, the corners of a newspaper page, cheap-o spiral note books.......  I used to own some lovely writing paper that was a gift.  t  was a I recognize the value of beautiful writing paper, but I honeslty have no idea where it even is, assuming that I still even have it.

Nope for me it's all about the pen.