Why is a raven like a writing desk?

Yesterday, my sister Barbara surprised me with a present. It was a steel nib quill. Now that's old school.

It is sweet. I didn't try to use it until just now. It's an amazing instrument. After first examing it, I didn't really believe it would work. I tentatively dipped it into the ink. Then, slowly, hesitantly, I wrote a thank-you note to my sister with it.

It's a little unreal. This was a tool that everyone used to write with. Now, I just hit buttons to make my words show up. Often, something is lost in the adaptation from ink to text.

When I look over things I've written on paper with pen, I can still see the parts that I've scratched out, or substituted a better word, or got so excited about that my handwriting became an almost illegible scrawl.

Then it gets sterilized and thrown up onto the computer screen.

Nothing too serious. Good writing is good writing. It doesn't need all those flourishes utilized by the old calligraphers.

My sister got me the pen to write in my journal with. Not my foul-weather composition notebook (which a PaperMate Flex-Grip Ultra Fine pen is good enough for), but the sweet leather-bound journal that Molly gave me.

So now I'm very happy. I slipped the thank-you note under my sister's door. It is past four am, and I think she works tomorrow. She would not likely be happy to have me burst into her room shouting "Look, I wrote with a quill!" Not at this hour.

Whoa, I almost forgot something very important. Two things, really.

Hear Ye, Hear Ye!

Andrew Nunemacher is having a going-away party at his house starting around 4 pm. Should be plenty of food, but I think it's BYOB.

Nunes will be heading off to Missouri to continue his education in technical theatre. It will be rough on the poor guy; the majority of the students there are female, and I guess he's one of only six males in the entire theatre department.

Ed-ucation

My brilliant friend, Edward Auburn Carter, will also be having a going-away party at his home beginning around 8 pm. He will be starting a new job in San Jose doing something incredibly difficult involving mathematics and computers.

He will be missed and envied.

But I like to think of it in this light: I'm not losing a friend, I'm gaining a place to stay in San Jose.

So I'll doing all kinds of running around tomorrow. Maybe more, since I sort of have a pseudo-date as well.

We'll see.

No rest for the wicked.

Buona notte.