Rare in collecting things can I say I have ever truly been content with what I have. But I find that with stationery, with my pens, my current collection is enough. Is it perfect? No, I don’t love my Lamy 2000 and would replace it, I think, with a more traditional cigar-barrel fountain pen, and I wish the Parker Jotter I carry (for when it is not prudent to use a fountain pen) was equipped with a black refill of some variety. But it is enough, and it is good.

I think the difference here is that in prior phases of my life when I have been taken with a particular something and chosen to collect it, more often they are not exactly functional items, or even if they are, I don’t set aside the time to appreciate it. Certainly not the numerous Transformers figures I own or the other toys and models, nor the books, nor even the gaming stuff: for me miniatures and trading cards have always been more about the aesthetic rather than the recreation. I afford myself little opportunity to truly sit back and appreciate what I have, and more than that, even use what I have. But I use my pens on the daily: they are there for all my journaling, for my studies, for anything I ever need to write down. I could scarce imagine myself not wanting to use the three fountain pens I now carry with me or even the Jotter.

They live in my pocket, in the $20 Amazon leather pen case of the photo above. I do not leave the house without them. A Lamy 2000 in extra-fine (though it is the boldest of my pens: I would curse Lamy’s QA standards, but I’m fair certain that they already are), two modern Pilot Elites in fine and extra-fine, and the Jotter. The fountain pens are inked with Platinum Carbon Black: I find I don’t care for colored ink, even blue. It offends my conservative sensibilities where my personal writing is concerned. It just doesn’t look right in my journals. Currently, for my journals, I am using a Leuchtturm 1917 A5 softcover and a Midori B6 slim, the latter of which accompanies me in a coat pocket most places. That is one place I may change over to a different system as the B6 is a might too large and the Traveler’s Notebook Passport Size appeals mightily but of course, with notebooks, change is inevitable: perhaps I will get that once I finish these two up, which at the rate I fill pages up, is likely to be sooner rather than later.

I will admit, I have been looking at wristwatches a bit, so that might be a touch of a new obsession, and may play somewhat into the ceasation of my flights of fancy where more pens are concerned, but my enjoyment of my pens has, if anything, intensified more as a result. It’s a curious sensation for a young man who has constantly flitted too and fro from one interest to the next.

I’ll write again soon.