Friday, August 05, 2005

making history

i was sitting in my meeting, furiously taking notes on the business of the day for about ten minutes straight. i could hardly keep up, but i was using a trusty bic medium point ball point pen. in blue. the cap's stem had been broken off, i'm sure by my pesky little brother. i was hitching along, wondering why the ink was sticking a little. i have always loved these pens -- they're cheap and reliable -- and usually get them in bulk because i inevitably lose them, lend them or otherwise find myself unable to keep track of them.

i took a break from writing to uncramp my hand. then, as i got ready to jot down a few extra essentials, i realized my pen wasn't working. what an inopportune time; this guy wasn't going to repeat himself without being annoyed. i shook the bic and scratched the hell out of my memos, to no avail. then i pulled out the cartridge: bone dry. there weren't even any inky bubbles sticking to the inside of the clear tube.

in 20 years of writing, i have never held on to a writing utensil long enough to have it run out of ink.

6 comments:

neena maiya (guyana gyal) said...

I love when I finish a whole pen. Makes me feel I got my money's worth :-D

Mike said...

Congratulations! I'm one of those freaks who never loses a pen. I finish every single one of them. So I know how great it must feel.

omar said...

Like Viking, I am one who finishes every pen. I'm messy and I never seem to know where I put anything, but I always know where my pen is.

Unknown said...

i love pens but i am know throughout manhattan as the girl who looses all her pens... all my clients (past job) would know to give me pen right away-- my bank branch people always hang on to pass to me the free pens they receive from HQ. my manager needed a pen once so he climbed under my desk and fished out like three...

so congrats-- so how long did it take??

cadiz12 said...

a few months. this may not be a big deal for you guys, but i seriously was staring at it in disbelief for about 10 seconds.

glo said...

I always feel betrayed when a pen goes out on me, like it should have been considerate enough to inform me that I needed to bring a second.