find my beloved Waterman fountain pen

I don’t know where the pricey fabulous replacement pen is. I feel really bad about this.

I need to do a Big Search. If I can’t find it I will secretly buy a new one so my sweetie doesn’t know I’m such a dope to lose his gift.

Thing is, I used it ALL the time. Lost it during a time of huge stress and forgetfulness. Maybe it’s here somewhere.

Boo hoo.

Though I’ll keep my eye peeled for it.

Exchanged the new silver Waterman for a fine point yesterday. It’s so lovely, so well balanced. It’s also good to be told (by the DH) and to tell myself that I am worthy of such a fine writing instrument.

Aaaah. The beautiful pen’s nib was just too fat. It makes such a wide inky line that it bled through some of the cheaper paper I tried it on. My notebook has wonderful thick paper, but I need my Waterman to work anywhere.

So I took the beauty back. I found a fine point version of it in a shop in Pasadena and we are going to go take a look at it. This is an expensive pen and if we’re going to buy it, it really needs to be right.

I feel bad that I couldn’t just keep the one Hydra picked out. He was right, the style is absolutely perfect. But it has to flow right, too.

I looked at my journal to see where I last used my blue Waterman Phileas, and went back there yesterday to ask about it, but no one had found it. This was the morning of the day I came down with the horrible cold, so I might have done something thoughtless during the day.

Meantime, today I cleaned up the antique fountain pen that Braveheart gave me for my birthday. It’s one that you fill from a bottle of ink. It responded well to the cleaning…it was not really useable before. All I did was soak it in some warm water and then fill and empty it with water a few times.

But I want a cartridge pen to travel with me during the day.

Here’s a photo I took of it about in December 2006.

Sniffle.

It’s been missing for a little over two weeks. I’ve looked high and low, in and out…twice. Calmly. Figuring I would find it and why cause a fuss.

I have

-sorted through all the books and bookmarks underneath the head of the bed
-looked in the bill-paying drawer, the end table drawers, the bedside table drawers, even the silverware drawer
—looked in every bag I’ve carried in the last six months (at least twice), plus the suitcases I took to France, even though I’d used the pen since coming back
-cleaned the floor and trunk of my car because the last time I remember seeing it was in my camera bag, and it might have fallen out
-shampooed the carpet in the major rooms and master bedroom…not because of the search, but you see, a lot of stuff has been moved
-checked under all the cushions
-completely cleaned all surfaces of my desk at work and reorganized the drawers (partly because of imminent carpet replacement)
—checked around the outside bench where I sometimes write on the front porch
-attempted to use both of the antique fountain pens Braveheart has given me (non-cartridge…I think they need a thorough cleaning and maybe some rehab)

So tonight Hydra took pity on me and brought me home a beautiful silver Waterman that says “France” right on it. It’s so fine, so well balanced. It didn’t require a second of scribbling, the ink was just there. Aaaah.

I am a fountain pen lover. Ever since middle school. Used to be cheap Schaeffers, then Parkers. Only graduated to the Waterman for Christmas 2005. They flow better than any other kind of pen, and any fountain pen will counteract my bad habits of pressing too hard and holding on too tight. You have to relax when you use a fountain pen, and something about that frees up my brain, too.

So… I was looking for something about Waterman pens here and I suppose I will give up actively looking now.

What a sweetie my DH is. He is so supportive of my creative life.

[Photo: Dodger thinks it’s cool, too.]

he is very kind…