Random bullets of winter break

• Achievement of the day so far: making an appointment to get a haircut/color this week. I always call at the last minute and worry that my stylist will be out of town or booked up, but victory is mine! (I have a class starting next week and I always like to start the school year clean and shiny, even though I've been letting my hair go terribly over the course of the semester.)
     
• Am going to spend the time between now and then angsting over what to do with my hair, though. I like it longer, but it's pretty shaggy; I would like it to look like it has a style, rather than just being hair. And I continually go back and forth about whether I should get bangs cut again or not - am thinking not, but no-bangs means the hair falls in my face quite a bit (I like no-bangs with my hair down, but not so much pulled back from my face. A conundrum). Plus, no-bangs means that I can go for a longer time between cuts, which is good in terms of cost, but probably bad in terms of my overall presentation. (I never understood how someone could go six months without a haircut until I got rid of the bangs. Needing to get bangs trimmed definitely drives you into the salon, but lacking that makes it much easier to shove the hair behind your ears and ignore it.)
     
• Now I just need to wait for the other salon to open so I can call for an appointment to get my brows done. Yes, I go to two different salons for these things. High-maintenance much? (In my defense, the brow woman is AMAZING but the haircuts there were meh. Sadly, my current hairstylist doesn't do AMAZING cuts, but her color this fall was great. And I'm too lazy to find a new stylist right now.)
      
• I ventured out yesterday for the first time since Wednesday, and ended up spending $40 on pen refills. That's what you get for having nice pens (which I used to spend a lot of money I didn't have on when I was in grad school. I look back now and wonder what exactly I thought I was doing, but I do still love my pens, even though I don't buy them as much now that I'm [relatively] fiscally responsible. I just buy $40 of refills instead :-P). I bought ink cartridges for four different fountain pens, as well as ballpoint pen refills in colors like pink, orange, and turquoise. I much prefer fountain pens in general, but ballpoints usually work better for writing in textbooks, depending on which kind of paper the press went with. (I can usually get away with fountain pens in the brown or blue casebooks. Unfortunately, almost everyone at my school assigns the red ones, and I can only use pencil or ballpoint pen in those.)
     
• Which reminds me that I did accomplish something else yesterday: bought books for next semester. Ouch. And I realized after the fact that I bought the book for one of my "maybe" classes through Half.com, which means that returning it if I drop the class will be a hassle. (I bought the books for the other "maybe" class through Barnes & Noble, so, returnable.)
     
• Reasons to Take Maybe Class #1: more interested in the subject; harder to return the book. Reasons to Take Maybe Class #2: meets at a better time; sort of a "should" take subject; prof seems to have higher eval scores than in Class #1. The big question is whether Prof. #2 is better than Prof. #1, and whether my desire to learn about Subject #1 can outweigh any inadequacies of the prof. (My least favorite class last semester was the one that was required, but that suffered from the double-whammy of me both not being interested in the subject and not especially liking the prof.) Guess I'm going to go to both for the first day/week and see which I like better...
      
• Examples of current paranoia (also known as, I have too much free time on my hands right now): I have an externship lined up for next semester, but I haven't been able to get hold of my supervisor in the last week and so I start to panic and wonder if it's fallen through. Despite the fact that, you know, it's the holidays, so she might have just taken some time off? Or else is incredibly busy and trying to balance that with the holidays? Yeah, I think I need to take a deep breath. Similarly, despite sending in my signed acceptance for my summer job (back in November), I don't quite believe it's real and keep expecting someone to tell me I was just making it up. I'm reluctant to tell people at school, even, because I keep expecting it to fall through. (I think it just doesn't feel real to get a job in November that doesn't start till May.)
     
• Okay, that's it for now. Gotta go accomplish something (it's early enough in the day I still have hope that this may happen!).

Comments

[undine]

I want one of each of those pens! Seriously, is there one in particular that you prefer?

[Another Damned Medievalist]

I used to have a pelikan like that, but it's got lost. I really need another that I can load up with red ink for correcting. Or maybe a Souverän. Have to save up for one of those, though.

[New Kid on the Hallway]

Honestly, I like them all quite a lot! Bang for your buck award would probably go to the Pelikan, which is the cheapest (and takes the most easily found cartridges). In general, Pelikan pens all write wonderfully, even the inexpensive ones. I think I've had three of the Future pens, and at least one developed a leak over time, but I'm kind of tough on my pens.

The Lamy and Namiki are both great - the Lamy is less expensive than the Namiki and probably a little easier to write with; the Namiki is a little heavier and so a little less suited for writing for long stretches at a time. I think it takes a little more getting used to, though it's been my go-to pen for the last semester (a retractable fountain pen is pretty fun! and mine is bright yellow, which I like). Lamy cartridges are easier to find in stores than Namiki ones (although you can also just use converters with bottled ink, too. I used to only do that, but I got lazy).

The Sheaffer is no longer available, and I haven't been very impressed by the models they currently have available, FWIW.

(I should probably explain that I have a collection of about 100+ fountain pens, so these are four I picked out that I love and use regularly. Many of the others are antiques, however, which I've gotten out of the habit of buying/using - I'm less comfortable tossing them in my bag! I like having choice in my writing implements, so I carry probably 20-30 pens in my bookbag at a given time, which confuses the heck out of security screeners. Probably 5-7 will be nice fountain pens and the rest are ballpoints/pencils. I'm kind of a hoarder.)

And last point in this way-too-long disquisition: if you do want to buy fountain pens, unless you have a great local store that you like (NOT Colorado Pen Company), I would go to fountainpenhospital.com or swisherpens.com - last I looked, they had the best prices by far (you shouldn't have to pay list price; most of the online stores discount).

[New Kid on the Hallway]

The Souveräns are great - I have a transparent red one that I love (it was a low end model - you definitely do have to save up for most of them!). I was always anti-red-ink for commenting on stuff, though. (Not so much out of a desire to spare the students, it's just that's what Doktormater always used on my work and it's scarred me - I never use red ballpoints!) ;-)

[undine]

Thanks, NK, for the pen recommendations and also for the store recommendations. I've bought from FPH but not Swisher Pens.

[Bardiac]

Mmmm, talking about fountain pens is way too dangerous... and the store suggestions, fatal.

But, I have a new pen on the way :)

[New Kid on the Hallway]

Bardiac, so glad I could encourage your stimulation of the economy! :-)

Undine, you are clearly wise in the ways of pens already, if you frequent FPH! Sorry if I went overboard on the pen education (I just run into so many people who are afraid even to use a fountain pen because they think they don't know how or will break it or the like...).