Fountain Pen Day 2024
Fountain Pen Day 2024, I found myself traveling to Chicago. Couldn’t think of a better place to be for my first FPD and first visit to a brick and mortar store - Atlas Stationers! Atlas was AMAZING! As soon as we walked into the store we were greeted and went over to pick up our store bingo cards and spin the Atlas wheel, I got a sticker … woo! I had a list of pens to try, so immediately I bee-lined for the pen counter. After trying several pens, and mentally putting a few on my ‘want’ list, I finally settled on the Benu Ephoria Bloody Mary because 1) it’s a stunning pen in person, pictures do not do it justice and 2) It’s red. Totally not the color I’d go for and I liked it a lot. My second pen was the Atlas Exclusive Edison Cenote. Again, another stunner in person and pictures do not do it justice. I’ll have to figure out how to get a photo that does these two pens right. I had a lovely conversation with Brendan at Atlas who told me all about the process of creating their custom exclusive pens. While walking around the ink shelves a ton of times to grab the Colorverse 2024 FPD ink and another Atlas exclusive - Michigan Avenue from Anderillium, I ran into Momma T and ended up having a really cool conversation about how they pull their orders and if something says ‘out of stock’ online, is it really ‘out of stock’ at the store? Yes, they pull directly from the shelves and got a stamp for my bingo card for a high-five! I ended up grabbing a few other inks that were on my list, like Sailor Afternoon Tea, Tom’s Studio Mallard and couldn’t resist Colorverse’s Delicious Sleep because of the very cute cat on the front. I was also looking for a red for the Benu when someone overheard my saying to my wife that I needed a red. She turned to me and asked if I had Colorverse Hubble? I said no and she handed me a sample vial, I was in shock and couldn’t thank her enough. In my shock of someone being so super nice, I forgot to ask her, her name or give her mine. I only mentioned that all of my inks were at home and I was sorry that I couldn’t return the favor. I don’t think I even mentioned that I wasn’t from Chicago. So If that nice person reads this, please reach out to me! I’d love to give you a few samples. I had on a green t-shirt and was at Atlas in the morning. Overall it was an amazing experience and so much fun! The generosity of the fountain pen community made this such a joy to be in person at the store. Everyone at the store was awesome and everyone made it a point to say hello and have a little chat.
and … some sad news
As soon as we got back from Chicago we ended up having to take one of our sweet boys to the emergency vet. We lost him not long after. I’ve had him since he was 7 weeks old. We had a bond so special that it feels like a book was closed, and that I wasn’t ready to be finished. I do have the comfort of knowing that he held me and I held him in his final moments as if to say that as long as we held onto each other everything would be okay and that was peace for both of us. This is the second furbaby we’ve lost in four months and it’s a really empty feeling.