In February of 1998, I decided that I wanted to write a letter by hand for the first time in over twenty years. For over two decades my writing instrument of choice had been a computer and printer. Periodically, I would jot a note or two with the mechanical pencil that my father gave me when I went to college, but I had not written anything in cursive for at least twenty years. I found a cheap ballpoint pen and tried to write the letter, but immediately realized that I could not remember how to form cursive letters. Coincidentally, an unsolicited Levenger catalog arrived in the mail that very day. I wrote the letter with a computer, but ordered my first fountain pen, a gunmetal Waterman Maestro, the next day.

I had never even touched a fountain pen before; I found the experience miraculous. I started working as a Software Consulting Engineer for Apple in March of 1998 and spent eight months in Manhattan working at Standard and Poors on Wall Street, then training a small team of developers at HBO near Times Square. I commuted home (to Ames, Iowa) every other weekend (only home for 36 hours every two weeks), and spent most of my time in Manhattan, where I discovered Fountain Pen Hospital.

As of this writing (June 23, 2001) my collection is comprised entirely of modern writing instruments, but several of my new PenTracer friends have offered to help me start buying vintage fountain pens. My current favorites are Visconti Michelangelo, Titanic, Voyager, Manhattan, and Copernicus, Stipula Etruria and Saturno, Aurora 88 and Optima, Bexley Carved Obsidian and Deluxe Demonstrator, Pelikan M800 and M600, and Waterman Man 100, Opera, and Patrician fountain pens. Of course, like most PenTracers, my list of favorites grows and changes daily. My favorite nibs are Mottishaw Flexible Extra Fine, Italic, Stub, Oblique Double Broad, and [Extra] Fine.