Before Me The Jar

In front of me is my jar of writing implements. It's rather sparsely filled at the moment due to attrition, but that is about to change. I keep starting off with a pen and finding it dry or having it go dry while I'm writing something. I'm not mad about this, but glad for the chance to know each of those pens for what it really is. I look forward to having a jar full of nothing but reliable writing tools, and it's going to be soon, you may be sure.

I'm going to buy a couple boxes of good pens, blue and black. It just doesn't pay to cheap out on that any more than it does to overspend on a single pen. I don't want pens I'm afraid to lose or break, but I at least want ones that will give me some good use. When I clear out these bad ones, that can happen, and I'm excited about it.

I also have to get myself some pencils. I really like writing with pencils. People mostly seem to avoid them, which appeals to me. I hope that doesn't make me a hipster. You can't be a hipster if you don't want to be, can you? Anyway, I just like pencils. I like the feel of one in the hand, the feel of it writing, the sound it makes and the act of sharpening it. A nice thing is that it doesn't make a great deal of difference how much you spend on them.

Filling out the jar are markers and crayons. I don't imagine there's much of interest to say about the markers. I have thought of buying highlighters, but that doesn't make much sense to me. You can highlight or underline, and while highighters only highlight, pencils and pens both write and underline. That's why I consistently stock mustard but not ketchup. Versatility is a great quality. I value it above many things.

Now those crayons are a whimsical thing. A lot of restaurants still furnish drawing materials for children. You'll get a coloring sheet and three or four staple colors of generic crayons. They're meant for kids, but restaurants typically make very little effort to safeguard them and keep them out of the hands of opportunistic, childlike men like myself. I can't think of much to do with them, but they do look nice in that jar. If it came down to it, I would use them. That's what the jar is for.