In fourth grade (lo, these many years ago), my handwriting was so illegible that my teacher, Mr. Chavez, forced me to stay after school and practice penmanship. My parents bought me a Speedball calligraphy set, the kind with the nibs, holders, and real bottles of ink. (I still have the nibs and holders.) I love using the pen and looking at any book with decorated or illuminated letters. Since I don't even remember a time when I could not read, the combination of text in a book with the artistry of the letters was irresistible. I practiced calligraphy off and on but never had the discipline to get really serious about it. I think I was in high school when I discovered the Sheaffer plastic-barreled pens with the removable nibs and the short cartridges. I used them all the time; they had a tendency to leak, but they were worth it. I still have those pens and nibs, thought I rarely use them. One italic nib that started out flat is worn to a 45-degree angle.
The first "real" fountain pen I ever bought was a black Reform with a piston filler. I used it (still do) quite often to write letters to a friend in Japan. Still, I wasn't hooked yet. Four years ago, I saw a Waterman Laureate at Office Depot for 80% off. Naturally, I had to have it. That's the pen I signed my first mortgage papers with...I'm surprised it doesn't write in blood. I picked up a pen or two, including a Waterman Phileas, but I didn't get really hooked until I discovered vintage pens at Pendemonium last year. My vintage pen s include a few Esterbrooks that I love, a Waterman Lady Garland (Canadian), and a Diamond Point. My new pens include an Inoxcrom that I use quite often as a workhorse pen. This year, a friend who collects and uses new fountain pens gave me a beautiful deep green Waterman Man 200. It's a very modest collection, and as you might have guessed by now, I'm much more an accumulator than a collector. I like to write with my pens; I buy based on the heart-thump factor and price. My only criterion is "no obese pens." They are beautiful and impressive, but my hand gets tired quickly when using a heavy or fat pen.
Pens aside, I am an avid gardener and a voracious reader and I just plain like words. I have somewhat eclectic reading tastes. I like children's books (e.g. The Goat in the Rug, Harry Potter, His Dark Materials trilogy), contemporary fiction, especially about the South (e.g. Rita Mae Brown, Fanny Flag, Bailey White), classics (e.g. Dickens, Trollope, Fitzgerald, Steinbeck), poetry (e.g. Rilke, Wallace Stevens, Bin Ramke, Louise Bogan, Neruda), theology, historical fiction, some science, and art.
Other things you might like to know: I also write poetry upon occasion. I love to paint and I am, if I do say so myself, a talented baker. Dessert is my forte. I am currently a catechumen at a small Episcopal parish. I have two sweet cats that I adopted out of pity and that now control my life. I was born in Denver in 1972 and grew up and continue to make my home in Denver. Although I did attend the University of Denver and the University of Northern Colorado, I escaped sans degree. I currently work as a technical writer for a software company.
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