Pens. Work. Broadway. Birthday.

So I recieved my Recife Crystal fountain pen today in the mail-- I write enough in my charts that I go through approximately an ink cartridge a day, which gets expensive.  Substantially less expensive to buy ink in bottles, but then I was refilling with the piston refiller twice a day (once at noon, once at night).  Which makes for a mess if you're at all tired.

The Recife is a wonderful pen with a fine flexible nib.  Better yet, it fills with syringe or eyedropper.  And it holds a heck of a lot of ink. 

I'll only need to fill it every few days; maybe once a week or so.

In the meantime, the Parker 51 is full of Cactus Gruene ink, and is behaving itself well; for a medium nib pen, the gold nib is quite flexible and the line is pretty thin.

The Phileas has a purple cartridge in it.  (I took the converter off and cleaned it out.) 

I like purple.

Work proceeds apace; I still look forward to it, and enjoy getting out of bed in the morning.  I enjoy it more when I've set the Delay Brew on the coffeemaker and laid out clothes for myself and Robin ahead of time, of course.  But even when it's a mad rush out the door at 7 AM, the drive isn't bad.

Eye-opening, but not bad.  I drive up Broadway, right through the worst bits of North Minneapolis, looking at gang graffiti, burnt out storefronts, crack houses, children playing unattended at the curb. 

I want to scoop them all up and bring them home with me.  That is no place for children to be living.

It firms my resolve:  I have been blessed in life with a LOT.  And giving to those less fortunate should have some component of 'at home'. 

So I'm carefully looking at local charities, besides The Bridge, which is my charity of choice.  Those of you who live in town, I'd welcome suggestions.

I am also declaring a birthday day.  At Sakura.  On Sunday.  I'm told I get 10 birthday days, since I turned 30.  This is #2.  I have eight more!  Eight!!

I like this almost as much as work. :)