On being a pen snob

I spent the entire weekend watching Fringe so today’s post is A. late, and B. quite lame. Maybe if I didn’t put myself under pressure to post every single week day, I’d have better content.

I’m going to admit to being a pen snob. No, I’m not one of those people with a whole collection of (insert high end brand name here) who act as if every other pen is below them, but I was close. I spent the better part of 2 years using fountain pens for 98% of my writing and looking down on pens I perceived to be farther down the food chain. Recently, I’ve begun to address this little problem by adding Sharpie pens and a large number of gel pens to my collection.

I’m not saying I don’t love fountain pens anymore, no way, they’re just too awesome. They possess a soul that no pen with a ball at the tip will ever know. And the manual intervention needed to keep them inked? That’s a huge part of the fun! Who among us hasn’t enjoyed a couple hours with a handful of pens at a basement sink flushing them clean so we can change the color spectrum we have loaded in them? I shall always love my fountain pens but I can no longer act like they’re the only pens on the planet.

And so, I’ve begun purposely exposing myself to other types of pens. I can’t stand normal ball points so those are out of the question, I can’t think of a single reason to keep a ballpoint on hand except for signing credit cards and shiny birthday cards. Other than for those reasons, if I have to reach for a pen and it’s a standard ball point, I shudder. Maybe I still retain a bit of that pen snobbery or perhaps I just hate having to use a pen that requires pressure. I find that Sharpie and gel pens tend to require about the same pressure a fountain pen would need (meaning none or close to none) and that makes them perfect candidates for use when a FP doesn’t work.

So now my man bag is packed full of even more pens. I have Sharpie pens, gel pens, and fountain pens sitting next to each other happily and I’m cool with it. There’s nothing better than having options!