Cagey sent me something in the mail yesterday and she had included a hand-written note. I sat there looking at it, and felt feelings I haven’t felt since I was in school: I was jealous of her handwriting.
She has such pretty handwriting! Growing up, I was always envious of girls with pretty handwriting. I mean, I’m the one with the pen habit I couldn’t quit, I should have been given the gift of pretty handwriting. Why did those girls - who didn’t even do their homework - get that gift? It was WASTED on them!
I blame this for why I never successfully kept journals. I would have a pretty journal, and write pretty things in it, with pretty pens. BUT - it never looked pretty because my handwriting wasn’t cute. I would try so hard to change it, but what happened was that I just became one of those people whose handwriting never looks the same. Every time I sign my name, it looks different. If you scroll through my calendar, it will look like several people write in it. Several people with REALLY UGLY HANDWRITING that is.
This is also how my college studying technique was developed. I would find myself hating looking at the variety of chicken-scratch notes before a test, so I would re-write them and try to use nice handwriting. Even if it wasn’t pretty, it was at least all consistent if I did it in one sitting. So, before every test, one of my studying techniques was to re-write all of the notes I would study from.
Maybe it’s a good thing. Given my love of pens and blank journals, I might have never needed to start a blog if I liked my handwriting. And it only takes a quick edit to change the font on the page when I get bored. Blogging: Perfect for Those with Ugly Handwriting and Fickle Taste in Script.
Amen, my handwritting used to be ok, until the computer started to be my primary source of communication [and my job]. Wow, my handwritting really sucks now.
Which is a shame, as I used to have pen pals from all over the world when I was in high school and would send at least 10 letters a week.
I am so anal, that if I am writing a recipe [tried to keep a handwritten recipe journal, skip that, started a recipe blog instead] or letter, I have to start over, from scratch if I make a mistake. It’s not very friendly to time constraints.
I, too, love pens and paper so one would think I’d have stellar handwriting.
Oh well.
My handwriting is crappy too. The mister’s, of course, is all lovely and uniform. Not fair; you are a BOY.
I have the handwriting of serial killer. I hate it. If I try to change it, it just looks like a second grader did it.
I also ALWAYS rewrote my notes. Sort of a necessary study technique.
I, too, hate my handwriting. I used to practice writing different styles in school. But, alas, I stuck with a crappy version.
That is me! Everything I write looks different….and ALL of it is ugly! I try so hard to write “pretty”…..my son has better handwriting than me! Thanks Miss Zoot for sharing that, I’m glad I’m not the only one!
You crack me up! Serioulsy - does anyone like their own handwriting? When I was writing the card, I was upset because I couldn’t find my Favorite Pen* and I HATED how the text was coming out, but I couldn’t throw the card away and start over since it was a handmade card. Argh.
BTW, Sorority Girl Handwriting always baffled me until I had a SG friend in grad school who taught me the SECRET. hee hee
*Because of course, I have to hide all the Good Pens from my husband! Which means that effectively I have hidden them from MYSELF.
i also have the worst handwriting known to man. it is so embarrassing when i’m writing a note or something for someone at work and it looks like a five year old’s chicken scratch.
on the other hand, my cousin, who is a school teacher, has ‘teacher’s handwriting.’ i once received a thank you not from her and it looked like it had been typed out- each of her letters were exactly the same size and shape, evenly spaced and i swear to god she used a ruler, her lines were so straight. it made me feel a little creeped out.
My handwriting is awful and my signature is now completely unreadable. The only way I got through college was by printing in all caps.
Fortunately, I’m a good typist.
I avoid writing by hand as much as possible. My writing sucks, and I mean sucks. And yes I hate the pretty hand writers too
Curse you people with pretty handwriting
Hehe, you’re funny.
My sister told me the other day ‘You know, your handwriting is much more bubbley than your personality’.
I’m in the same boat. Unnatural obsession with office supplies coupled with dorky handwriting. I think my first problem is that I haven’t written anything in cursive since 5th grade, I write in print, ALL CAPS. Therefore, it is NOT pretty, but rather, funcitonal.
I’m a scrapbooker and have yet to journal using my own pen, I print all journaling on the computer in a variety of cute and lovely fonts….all of which eclipse my lack of nice handwriting.
Hell, if I was perfect no one would like me, so I’ll just embrace my ALL CAPITALS.
My husband and I have the same initials, including the middle one. Over the years, our signatures have begun to look frighteningly similar. This does provide an advantage if some document needs a signature from the other and they’re not immediately available……not that we’d even consider that of course!
While reading this, I got this eerie feeling that maybe you have been spying on me my whole life…
I think the combination of a love for office supplies and lame-ass chicken scratch handwriting is just another way for the universe to stick it to people like us.
There is a SG secret to great handwriting?!? Sweet Christ on a cracker, please share Cagey!! Because I’m in the same boat - the only way I justify my pen addiction is that I have to keep my handwriting skills.
Know what’s weird Zoot? I married into a Japanese family, and I swear that all of the women in this family have amazingly beautiful calligraphy-like handwriting. I asked my SIL once why they all have this talent, and she just shrugged - probably unwilling to share the secret with Whitey (me).
Also - have you tried those Zig writers that come in .1mm? Oh my god, LOVE.
There is a SG secret to great handwriting?!? Sweet Christ on a cracker, please share Cagey!! Because I’m in the same boat - the only way I justify my pen addiction is that I have to keep my handwriting skills.
Know what’s weird Zoot? I married into a Japanese family, and I swear that all of the women in this family have amazingly beautiful calligraphy-like handwriting. I asked my SIL once why they all have this talent, and she just shrugged - probably unwilling to share the secret with Whitey (me).
Also - have you tried those Zig writers that come in .1mm? Oh my god, LOVE.
Now I feel like we need a picture of her handwriting, because I want to compare myself and see if I have pretty handwriting according to your standards.
Juvenile, I know.
Does that make me insecure?
hell no I was just talking to a co-worker @ work today about handwriting too..she has beautiful handwriting also!
I am so jealous!
I thought that was -my- patented study technique.
I know this is weird….but I’ve always hated my writing, too. It’s not that I can’t write perfect if I put my mind to it—it’s just that I never developed a style with any kind of consistency. I might write big, maybe little, slant to the right, to the left, straight up and down. Heck, I know the banks don’t really check your signatures on checks…because mine is different just about every time I sign.
Maybe I was a forger in another life or something. I used to always say ( in my mind) okay self, this is the style of handwriting that you are going to follow from here on out…no variance…..nothing….but I never have been able to do it. Do you think I might have multiple personalities? This has really bugged me for many years, how weird is that?
OMG, Cagey, Please, tell us the SG secret! It’s true! Sorority girls all have that pretty writing, and it all looks the same. I was JUST thinking the other day that I used to like my writing, but since all the writing I’ve done for the past 8 years has been on a computer, when I do try to write with a pen I almost forget how. It’s so slow, and ugly and uneven!
i used to have decent handwriting, until the computer came along…AND, that’s how i used to study in college - re-writing my notes. but, it was mostly b/c i didn’t really know how to study and that was the only way things were sticking in my head.