I was given a batch of reject pens to take home earlier this week. They were donated to the LilZ and Zoot Pen Addict collection. I took them to LilZ and told him to go through them first before I did, that way I wouldn’t have to put myself in a position where I take the good pen for myself or let him have it. Because we know who would win that argument.

LilZ came to me awhile later and said, “I decided to host Pen Idol. I’ve narrowed it down to the final 10. Now it’s up to you, the public, to decide.”

Pen Idol. How can you not love that kid?

I later spent some quality time with the final 10, seeing the extent of their talents. I decided on a fast and smooth writing UniBall to be this year’s Pen Idol. It was a close call though, that’s for sure.

PEN IDOL. Awesome.

(Preface: You know how some people have real problems in their life? Yeah. I’m totally not one of them, by the way. I just wanted to note that before I use the word “crisis” in an overly dramatic and hyperbolic matter repeatedly.)

I’m having an organizational crisis! MAYDAY! MAYDAY! I’ve reached a point in my life where I have so much going on…that I can’t figure out the best way to organzie to keep track of anything. Since I tend to be a bit of a office supply whore, whenever I get overwhelmed, I buy more organizational items. New calendars. Notecards. New pens. I try to find different methods of categorization and color-coding and labeling. Unfortunately, when many things come up at once, I end of over-dosing on organization. I’ve officially become so organized I have wrapped myself back around to chaos. HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN?

I now have so many piles and notebooks and labels and colors marking different things - that need to be done, that have been done, and will be done - that I no longer have any idea what I’m doing. I have become proof that you can actually over organize. So…today my mission is to SIMPLIFY. I am going to control the desire to run to Staples for another notebook and I’m going to keep it simple today. One pen. (Maybe.) One notepad. (Maybe.) And just a simple To Do list. With checkmarks. (Maybe.)

It’s a dark day for me. So many supplies that will go ignored. Calendars. Highlighters. Post-Its. They’ll be so lonely without me.

I was lucky enough to be able to pick LilZ up from his Dad’s yesterday: five days early. Where it sucks for LilZ because his trip got cut short, it rocked my socks off because…well…duh, he’s back home! It turns out his Dad let him do his own Christmas shopping. Can you guess where he asked to go? Come on…guess! He’s my son. Where would I ask to go if allowed to do my own Christmas Shopping?

The office supply store, of course!

Normally we prefer Staples, but the town he was in had a better Office Depot, so that is where they went. I will share with you some information about his loot in the same manner he shared it with me.

“MOM! I found the NEW BEST PENS EVER!”

(God, you gotta love miniature office-supply addicts!)

Now, he let me try one and it was truly AWESOME. I’ve never seen them before (probably because we never go to Office Depot) but it was called “Foray Fine Point Porous Point Pen.” He got quite an assortment of colors and he let me carry the pink one around in my purse so I can make sure to look for them the next time I’m at an office supply store. I recently decided I had picked all of Staples new pens’ dry, so this is exciting! New Pens!

(Where are you going? Come back! Am I boring you?)

Anyway - he also bought several binders, some book covers, some pens, and some retractable highlighters. It was like he had died and gone to Supply Closet Heaven. Since he’s home early but we won’t do Christmas until Saturday, I let him open one of his presents from us last night. What was it? Pens and Highlighters. But different ones. Seriously. You thought I was joking about our addiction to pens and such, didn’t you? Well…here is the proof…the story Christmas 2006 - The Year Of The Pens.

NikkiZ’s daycare called and she had a very slight fever. We think maybe her ear infection is back, so we have an appointment for her at 3:30pm. I thought I’d see if she’d behave in the office for a little while, since I would like to play fax-catcher today. She is sitting on the floor trying to cram notecards into a notecard holder, and is screaming in frustration. The bad parent in me is very humored by this. Of course, she senses how humored I am and responds to my laughter with even grander screams. Which, of course, makes me laugh harder. It’s a viscous cycle of how to mistreat your child’s anxiety. Come learn from me.

She is also playing with the new pens I saw at Staples and of course, had to buy. I really like them! The tip is a little wide for my liking (medium point) but other than that - they’re great. Since many of you are pen addicts like myself, I thought I’d tell you about them. They are Uni-ball SIGNOs. Have you tried them? Very smooth and quick. I really like them. And of course I bought the pack with 19 different colors because I can not resist the power of a purple pen. It’s a disease.

We had to go to Staples last night to make color copies of the birthday party invites LilZ did by HAND. (Yes, I know he’s awesome.) When did color copies get so cheap? I remember when they were $1 a pop - but Staples sells them for 39 cents each! So cheap! I almost wanted to go home and grab more color sheets to copy just for the hell of it.

I am an office supply addict, and one of the symptoms is that it is physically impossible for me to leave Staples without purchasing pens. I usually grab a pack of whatever new (non-gel, non-ballpoint) pens there are on the shelves. Unfortunately - there hasn’t been a new release of pens in awhile, so I’ve just been buying packs of my old favorites. My current fave? The Pilot VBall Grip - Extra Fine. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any of those in stock. So - I settled for a classic that I haven’t bought in awhile: The Pilot Precise P700.

I just pulled them out of my bag and I saw the words “Gel Ink” on the packaging.

WHAT? WHAT? Since when did these pens start using gel ink? I hate gel ink. It is so sllllooowww and ugly and I hate it. Why did they switch to gel ink? WHY?

And yes, ink can be slow. Gel ink is slow. If you disagree - you are dead to me.

LilZ disagrees with me, but I let him get away with loving gel ink since he’s my son and all. I guess he’ll be getting a new pack of pens tonight. Bah. That was probably his plan all along since he pointed them out last night. He knew I’d reject them. Sneaky little gel-pen-loving kid.

This is an entry that was lost during a server crash. I was able to recover the entry itself, but not the comments. I apologize if your words of wisdom or humor were lost.