Pens I bring on vacation part 2
Because I really change opinion that quickly and given that fact I also probably shouldn’t get more tattoos but here we are
The last two Thanksgivings I spent on four planes in total, which feels like a stupid ratio of planes vs plates, and while other people enjoyed their family time, I thought I was seeing Langoliers given the amount of fog covering the tarmac. I also decided to ruin other people’s Thanksgiving, i.e. one of the flight attendants’ day by passing out on the flight to NYC, because why should I be the only one suffering in transit. Is it normal to pass out while flying? I guess. No pens were harmed in the process, thankfully.
Langoliers waiting for me.
Have you ever flown for so long you lose the concept of time? I wholeheartedly do not recommend not putting your phone on airplane mode because its clock will, in fact, go bonkers and show times that make no sense to your poor, tired body, and if you’re prone to feeling unwell while flying, you will feel like you just realized you left a Homo Sapiens in the TSA tray. At one point I was so disoriented I almost watched a romantic comedy. Thankfully, I wasn’t intoxicated enough for that, and instead worked my way through a book that didn’t sit well with me and… well, I worked on my faux Traveler’s notebook, and that means I got to play with pens.
See, every time I travel, I have to pick a few pens to keep me company. I have a general idea of how that should be done, but I don’t always heed my own advice. What I do do (hehe) is showing them places they’ve never seen. I mean, why would I be the only one having fun?
Left to right: Majohn A1, Ensso Bolt, Retro 51 (not a fountain pen, gasp), Drewnem Pisane Orion, Pilot Custom 92, and F3 Pens Signature, all of them chilling on a super soft blanket they have never seen before.
So, here is my lineup for this year (for the last year, please check out my post on pens to bring on a vacation. Spoiler alert: there is no vacation when you’re traveling for two weeks to see people you haven’t seen in a year and everyone’s working so there’s too many schedules to keep track of and time zone are jumbled and what even is sleep).
That was a long sentence.
Anyway.
I brought a Retro 51 that I hacked to use the Uniball Signo 207 refill because I needed to show it to my brother. I know, shocker,
using a rollerball, what a wild concept. Several years ago, for his birthday — or maybe when he got his master’s? — I bought him a rollerball, the Mustang 51, and it’s still collecting dust because it’s ’too fancy’ to take to work or, well, anywhere. I do see his point, of course, but that won’t stop me from putting my own flesh and blood on blast here for y’all’s reading pleasure. So, to clarify, the idea behind bringing a rollerball was not, in fact, so that I can use it on fountain pen unfriendly paper, but literally that, to pester my brother with how awesomely mine writes compared to his. You know, because he… doesn’t… use… his…
When it comes to signing something or filling out a postcard, I have a different travel pen, the Majohn A1 with Platinum Carbon Black ink. Since my postcards take about three to four months to arrive from Belgrade to Florida, I assume they swim across the ocean, and thus, I am obligated to use a waterproof ink so that my friends can spend hours trying to decipher my handwriting that’s just too small and pointy, and not because the ink spread. Side note, if you’ve never put a piece of paper with Carbon Black under a faucet, you are missing out. I don’t think I would put a postcard under running water, but YMMV, and I would assume it’s also fun.
Now, have I sent out the postcards yet? No. Have I bought them yet? Also no. A week’s worth of a head start won’t make a difference in the grand scheme of things, I tell myself, as I put off yet another obligation until it’s late enough for me to frantically start getting stuff done.
For a more practical approach, I brought my Pilot Custom 92 with a FM nib. I love this pen as it’s a gift from a dear friend. Now, why did I ask for a firm nib is anyone’s guess. It’s interesting to me that this FM nib is firmer than the FM nib I have on a Vanishing Point, and we all know that that nib is not even big enough to be called a nib — it’s barely a nibbling.
The FM on the 92 writes super well, and I’m sure I’d be able to write ten posts like this in one fill, but then you wouldn’t be able to read it because by the time I copy this to all of you dear readers, send it, and you receive it, you’d probably have forgotten there is a person online who dips bananas into coffee. In more neurotypical words, I’m saying the ink capacity is perfect for a trip of this length and I don’t have to worry about refills.
For a fun combo of an absolute unit of a nib, unique ink, and an eye catching pen, I grabbed my F3 Pens Signature, because we all need a lot of color in our world, especially if we’re traveling to, I don’t know, the pollution capital of Europe? I won’t go into too many details about this pen because I’m still working on a full review, and I don’t believe in spoilers1, but let’s just say that this pen is right up my alley, and the nib is more fun than John Cleese’s legs.
Nib > John Cleese
The pen just looks gorgeous in its own right.
Full review to follow.
Naturally, I also had to bring my trusty Banana pen which is also my… signature pen? See, I should probably figure out how to mount one of them Signature nibs by Pilot into this. I’m sure it’s doable.
The Banana pen — Drewnem Pisane Orion in Bananas and Coffee Garden, I believe — is here with me to show off my immaculate taste and superb design skills. You know, to match the looks and feel of this blog. So professional.
Besides, what’s better than having skulls on a nib that mixes bananas and coffee.
And, of course, the Ensso Bolt. I haven’t changed my mind since the review, and in fact, I like it even more now. I just got an email the other day from Ensso promising a brass version, so if you held off buying a bolt action fountain pen, your time to shine is coming up. I’m personally not a fan of brass pens :glances at the four Metropolitans: but I feel like this may be a good candidate as it’s otherwise thin and light; perhaps some more heft to it will attract those writers who just couldn’t get past the lack of girth.
On a more serious note, I’m exhausted. I feel way older than I am nowadays when I travel, and it’s not just the length of the trip — about 18 hours is the fastest I have done this trek — it’s also the fact I barely get to see my family, friends, and my hometown, and I have to plead my case every year when I want to use my hard earned PTO. And I have to make a choice between one family and the other. It sucks.
What doesn’t suck though is my choice in pens this year. I can tell the Majohn is just going to stay with me for a long time, the fish scale making me giggle every time I touch it. The Bolt is also a fabulous choice, and if I trusted Carbon Black in it, I could see myself using only one of these for postcards and the traveler’s notebook.
Speaking of, do any of you use the traveler’s notebook as a journal when on the road? I feel like I’m doing bullet journaling wrong — as in, I don’t bullet journal — and the only scrapbooking I do is that I washi tape some of the boarding passes to the pages.
Anyway, I’d like to hear your thoughts about travel pens, travel journals, or, actually, travel itself. Especially long haul trips. And especially those trips that bring you closer to people you miss for way too long during the year, when time stops and you come back to a completely different world.
Seriously people, why can’t we agree not to post stuff about Arcane until at least a day or preferably a week has passed since the last episodes aired? I had to get up at the buttcrack of dawn to watch the show so I would avoid the plethora of spoilers on every. Single. Platform. I frequent.