Happy August, just barely under the wire, Reader!

TODAY finds me relaxing with a pumpkin spice latte at a trampoline park. I hope you can see how incongruous that experience is... but it's actually a sign the day is going well.

It's 9AM and I've had so much life already.

My husband was out late playing a show with his band, which means I'm on morning duty. He also just started a new job, which means I'm on morning and afternoon and night duty most days... it's been a blur of weeks.

Here's what's goin' on!

Giving myself lots of room

You know I'm "the journal lady" for folks in my circle... would it surprise you to know my journal has had spotty coverage since the first week in August?

I love the routine and magic of journaling, but sometimes life gets away from me. I am VERY gracious about "missing a day." Sometimes I'll go a week or two without it, leaving a big gap of time to go back and fill in.

(I still play with pens most days regardless, as I make to-do lists and things.)

This works for me because it lets me plan a few long, solitudinal (made that up) journal entries and get a few pages written at a time. I can feel it welling up inside me.

So I am in the trampoline park and I'm about to rock out on my hobonitchi and catch up on some pages. A really fine time, if you ask me!

DC Pen show rundown

​My class at the Washington, DC International Pen Show was soooooooo fun. It immediately reminded me of the magic of in-person interactions. We're all just awesome humans trying to have a good time and share our nerdery.

It's only my second time teaching at that particular event, but it was fun to see a difference between years. After the class the first year, a bunch of folks hung back and we share our pens and stuff. After the class this year, a few hung back and we shared art. I even got a cool sticker from someone in attendance who designed a bunch of cat poses... so cute! Thank you :).

The event totally knocked it out of me. It bums me out sometimes how my chronic illness/health keeps me from doing more of what I want to do. In my healthier years, I bet I could have added another class each day, but just these two really stretched me to my max. Oh well -- look at me accept my limits!

After each class, it was back to the room to hydrate and thera-gun and lie still.

The rest of the weekend was a mother-of-young-kids-dream... After setting up my air purifier, I had some weed gummies and coconut water and DELICIOUS Korean takeout and just lounged for hours. I rotated freely between reading and journaling, blasting music, from like 5pm - 11pm, and slept all I wanted. It was a dream I still look back on fondly.

If you live in the DC area, please put Seoul Spice on your gratitude list -- not a day goes by I don't think of it. It's a dedicated gluten free Korean place. I just... I'm so jealous. Once I got home, I emailed them to beg them to open a location in Richmond.

Pen show scores

I am a bit more seasoned about my pen collection now so I didn't do anything too impulsive at the show. I got several nib grinds from Damien ($150) and now one of my TWSBI Diamonds is a favorite. Damien had two of my Pilot E95S to return to me, so it was kind of like getting 2 pens.

Then I got my Stylosuites fixed by Les (Free) because they'd become misaligned. I bought a lot of ink, but the only pen I got was when I stumbled on a Sailor 1911L Fresca with an M nib. You know how hard these are to find, right??

It was more expensive than I wanted to spend, so I took a gamble and offered to trade a pen I was trying to sell in exchange for $100 off and he took it! So I traded a Black matte Pilot Vanishing Point and some cash for this baby:

The pic above was just testing inks. Here are the ones I bought!

New to me:

• Troublemaker Sepia
• Toms Studio #16
• The orange one (forgetting it right now)

Restock inks:

• Iroshizuku syo gyuoku
• Robert oster soda pop blue
• Troublemaker milky ocean

I also did manage to splurge on this glorious Toyooka Craft box, the last blue one he had when I stopped by Sunday:

It's a long story, but I had an 8-pen box and felt guilty to have something os nice, so sold it. I've missed it every day, so when I saw this and it was about the same price as what I sold... you know what happened. It's the centerpiece of my desk and brings so much beauty to my life. I guess I'll just rot in personal finance hell for my choices.

Finally, I got some italian paper that turned out to be exquisite for fountain pens. I really love the designs.

Pens around town

One of the best things this year has been getting to know my local pen club, RVA Pen Club. Shout out to Jennifer and Eric, my new friends from there!

There is something so relaxing about casually checking in with people with your same obsessions. We know and love the same papers, we get why a particular pen or bag is awesome... It's just not something I've gotten to have IRL for a very long time and I treasure it. Even if they don't like the Counting Crows or Taylor Swift. 🤭

I'm sure there's more, but I'm about at the end of my writing window, so I'll just say...

Hi, thank you for being here,

Sarah G.

P.S. Inspo pictures for you to draw in your style: