Closing out a school year involves a lot of meetings. Each meeting creates waves of tasks that need to be handled — all while the countdown to graduation rapidly ticks down. The wide variety of tasks — from grading late projects to calling homes to ensure each graduate has the right supports for them to finish their pathway to every graduation requirement. List-filled chaos.

A palette of subtle ink colors seems a fitting celebration of returned eyesight. Gradient shading, shimmer inks without their shimmers, and infrequent sheens dominate. And three teal inks. Unsaturated blues and teals are where my heart lives.

Some weeks call for a mental reset. This week is one.

Changes to the kind of work I take up in the final weeks of a school year — far more editing and comments than lesson planning. Changes to my ability to get out of the house and journal or read in nice weather. Changes to my writing schedule as my teaching load lightens up. Channeling Bowie here.

The unusual suspects. This week is chock-full of novel pens, nibs and inks.

Four inks are first-timers: Petrichor, 441, Barossa Gilt, and Sea Glass. The same can be said of 50% of this week’s pens: the ASA, Kaweco, and Franklin-Christoph. The novelty is palpable. Or unusual. Either? Both?