Reflections on my second DC Pen Show, a mnml guest post
I’m thrilled to share a guest post by my great pen friend and, you’ll come to learn, my pen twin, Jo. We buddied up and toured the DC Pen Show together Saturday and Sunday. This is their recounting of the show we adventured together.
You can find them online at @pagesax3lsandink.
— JP
Attending a show by oneself is a great experience. It gives space to taking in the inevitable overstimulation of the DC pen show at one’s own pace. My first DC show was a solo visit and was the right way for me to experience a pen show at that moment.
But my second DC show? Having a crew that includes your Pen Twin (TM) grants the ability for buddies to play off of each other. Simultaneously, you both have the comfort and freedom to wander while having a “home group” adds a new dimension to the experience.
Writing this on a plane days after the show, what comes to my mind are moments — but that’s what all of our stories are filled with, no?
The DC Pen Show was particularly fun with JP around. We share overall tastes in pen aesthetics, in ink (yes, I like grey ink, too), and nibs! We also work as both accountability buddies and enablers.
Accountability buddies …
Me: “When we buy this pen, we can buy at the same time to save on shipping.”
JP: “We’ll save on shipping if we buy them now!”
Me: “But our pen budgets are spent!”
Sorry Nahvalur, we probably would have bought those pens if we had visited your table together on Saturday — before our respective pen buys — instead of on Sunday. The joke was on us, given Nahvalur’s free shipping threshold!
For the record, we were looking at a variant of the Nahvalur Nautilus Bronze Corydoras.
… and enablers.
JP: “I know you have your overnight rule, but you’re not going to find this again. Look! It’s fate. You’re the only one today (Saturday, end of day) who knows what this pen is!!”
Yep. I got the pen then and there without abiding by my normal “wait a night” rule for preventing impulse purchases. But really, my thanks to CY (Tokyo Station Pens) for taking the extra time to work on my pen’s nib — which led to another fun moment hours later at the pen show after dark.
Someone (who will not be named, but who we can all name) turned my safety pen upside down with the nib retracted “for science.” That person’s notebook now carries a memorable Diamine China Blue ink blot.
Ahem …
And maybe pen twins in how we can react when excited
We spent a good deal of time admiring pen resins and other properties in different lighting at the Carolina Pen Company table. JP ended up buying a pen and, in his excitement, forgot to discuss the model, the pen name, or even the ink name Jonathon filled it with. A “Yes. This.” moment in all senses.
I proudly influenced his nib choice towards a B by suggesting, “If you don’t like it, you have more options for grinding later.” He went with a B.
I also dutifully teased JP about his lapse when we realized it later. But honestly, I can’t believe I missed it, too.
If you’ve followed this blog, you know our fastidious attention to the details of our tools. We returned the next day to ask exactly what JP bought.
Bravo to Jonathon Brooks for rattling off all the pen details from memory based on who we were.
Back at Tokyo Station Pens, CY’s mother asked JP if he had an uninked pen to dip for a writing trial. Fortunately, my brand new SCHONDSGN Smoltem was ready to dip, its Custom Nib Studio Naginata Togi grind is perfect for demonstrating ink properties.
JP bought the ink.
JP later indulged my “one-pen one-ink" idiosyncrasy. The Smoltem’s first inking was technically already done back at the Tokyo Station Pens table. It needed a full fill now.
So there we were, post-show, eyedroppering my Smoltem out of a car trunk.
Turnabout was inevitably going to happen, but I didn’t expect it to come so soon. That night, at home, I took stock of everything and texted JP, “ ... what ink did you put in my pen?”
