i haven't used a pen for several months
$Zero
i learned that fact a couple days ago when, for some odd reason, i
found myself needing to write something down on a piece of paper.
so i grabbed a piece of paper off the stack of paper next to my
computer and then i went to grab a pen, but there wasn't one there on
my desk where i usually lay my pens down.
i figured that my kids must have borrowed them.
at which point i probably thought to myself:
"no big deal, i have zillions of pens around here."
i buy them in bulk every couple years.
a case full of smaller boxes of pens.
black ones and red ones and blue ones.
...
my office is a huge mess.
clean laundry piled up in various spots.
CD's in stacks all over the place.
fucked up computers on shelves and whatnot.
office supplies.
carts full of projects.
and all the usual packrat stuff you'd expect to find in a messy office
used by a creative genius.
like, for instance, a huge bag of rubberbands just laying there on the
table.
no, make that two huge bags.
one has assorted sizes and the other is full of the large thicker
rubberbands that bankers use to wrap rolls of quarters together in
hundred dollar packages -- ten rolls.
anyway, the point is, i couldn't find a pen.
and as i tried to make use of the only writing tool i could find (a
completely dulled-out-to-the-wood color pencil -- which i couldn't
sharpen because i couldn't find that stupid little plastic pencil
sharpener, nor my swiss army knife), and as i struggled to write on
the paper with the unsharpened colored pencil, i suddenly realized
that i hadn't used a pen for several months.
it kinda freaked me out.
-$Zero...
threading thru the history of clothing
http://groups.google.com/group/misc.writing/msg/b47c8110c1c59759