Pens & Paper

I'm very picky about paper and pens.

There is something about the scratch of a good pen across a nice piece of paper that is just "Mwuah" (chef's kiss) to me. They don't even have to be expensive ones. There's just a "feel" to it when it's just right.

I have plenty of pens that feel, absolutely, horrible. Sometimes through no fault of their own. Though a brass Kaweco currently sits on my desk unused because the medium nib bleeds out like a stuck pig every time its tip touches paper.

An expensive Lamy pen, only used from time to time and only until I start to lament its long lost "2000" brother that wrote like butter, but eventually cracked and leaked. I've not been able to bring myself to shell out the money to replace it.

A couple of preppy pens (F / EF) do me fine most days, but often I stick to a TWSBI Eco with some green Diamine ink. If I'm tired of ink , I have a few boxes of Mitsubishi pencils I reach for, and an old Rotring mechanical pencil that has lasted me about 20 years.

Paper... I am pickier. Maruman paper is the best I've found, but its costly. Moleskine broke my heart years ago, and despite multiple attempts to rekindle the relationship, they've continued to let me down. No matter how cool the Peanuts editions look.

Midori, Maruman, and Sakura dominate my desk. Along with a growing pile of Silvine index cards. Though, someday I'm guessing I'll have to start cutting my own as the population who use index cards dwindles down to just me and a few other stalwarts. Maybe I'll be able to subsist on the dregs of stock for a few years.

All this is to say. I'm picky. Annoyingly. My partner is not so picky as I am. But that's not a judgment on her. It's utter jealousy. I wish I could just write on anything. I can't. And that's sad.

I pine after a yellow coloured legal notepad make that I can't remember, and doesn't seem to exist anymore from when I was a teenager writing lyrics to songs, and poems with a thin little Cross mechanical pencil.

If this TWSBI ever breaks, or the nib calls it a day, it will be a sad day for me. A very sad day.

Pens and paper make me sad.