My Preciousss!!

[ciroccoj]

Chris found my fountain pen!!

I love fountain pens. Shaeffer used to sell them for $10 and I would buy about 3 per year, because I kept losing them. Then they discontinued the $10 ones and only sold $120 ones. At that price, since they didn't come with a bidet, I didn't buy them, but oh, how I mourned my penlessness.

Then I found one for $30 and saved up for it by not buying snacks at school. Every day I didn't buy a snack, I gave myself $2 until I'd saved up $30. Then I bought it. My lovely. My darling. My preciousss.

And then I lost it about two weeks later, before writing my Christmas cards. Mourned my pen. Wrote cards in ballpoint. Ick.

And now Chris FOUND IT!! On the FLOOR OF THE CAR!! Yippee!

Comments

[jenniferjames.livejournal.com]

Chris found my fountain pen!! ...My lovely. My darling. My preciousss.

::giggle::

I hope the two of you will be very happy together.

[tudorlady.livejournal.com]

I totally understand devotion to fountain pens! I have a couple of cheapies floating around, one with calligraphy points (uhm, somewhere) and one that is, to me, priceless. My dad's Schaeffer that he used in law school (ca. 1949/50). He gave it to me when I was 15 so *I* could use it when I went to law school. I won't go on about that part of it because it will make me cry, other than to say that no, I've never used it, and maybe, just maybe someday I will, for it's intended purpose. (It's beautiful - very hefty, with some sort of covering on the barrel that may well be real tigereye. Hard to tell.)
Foutain pens seem to be alive in your hand. They have their own stories, they seem to have an existence apart from just being writing instruments. I don't know why I believe that, but there it is, and I truly understand your attachment. You knew it would always come home to you...

[ciorstan.livejournal.com]

As someone who did a lot of calligraphy back in my earlier SCA days (I won the first Caidan pentathlon in calligraphy...) I never understood why people would be willing to share their pens.

I mean, think about it. You're scraping a metal blade across an abrasive surface. The pen is held in a particular way by a particular person and eventually picks up a particular wear pattern. As the pen is 'broken in' to your hand, it shapes itself to your use. Lending it to someone else messes up the wear patterns-- and your nibs are very rarely ever the same again.

So, when I taught calligraphy through Ithra (later Collegium Caidis) I made it a point to mention this. There were a lot of lightbulbs going off over heads when they realized that their shared TOOLS had been changing on them and why.

Being selfish about one's tools does have its usefulness.

So. Back, to your dad's pen.

Cherish it and as you begin to use it-- and I have the feeling I can guess why you aren't, right now, but I'm sure you will, someday-- keep in mind that the nib has been shaped by the use of his hand. Once you start to use his pen, it will start to shape itself to your hand and lose your father's influence. I can think of a nice metaphor for a girl's journey into womanhood, but I think you'd connect more with one that talks about relinquishing one of the last links of a parent from your life.

Or you can tell me I'm full of it. ;)

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

Foutain pens seem to be alive in your hand. They have their own stories, they seem to have an existence apart from just being writing instruments.

They do, don't they? It's so strange. And for some reason I have a Star Wars quote floating around my head: "An elegant weapon. For a more civilized time."

I have a special pen

[(Anonymous)]

I bought it with the enormous sum of $100 the U of S rewarded me with for graduating top of my department. I figured that 1) I'd rarely have that much money to spend on a pen again, and 2) $100 would be far to easy to fritter away and a pen would stick around. I call it my happy pen, or my special pen. It's also known around here as the very-special-belongs-to-mommy-don't-touch-or-Bad-Things-will-happen pen.

:-)

Sarah

Oh, and D's letter arrived yesterday

[(Anonymous)]

He has very good handwriting. Sandra is, naturally, pleased. Thanks so much!

[cassatt.livejournal.com]

Congrats on finding your pen :-). I am attached to a certain pen, too, though gave up (because of $$) on fountain pens years ago. I'm not sure what it means to be attached to pens. Or a pen. The pen. Whatever.