By Golly, I Think I Get It!

The whole twenty-seven pairs of black shoes thing!

I've mulled over the tweny-seven black shoes thing for quite some time. I don't like when there are things I don't understand. This one has long elluded me-- as a strong pragmatist, I had trouble grasping why more than one of a particular color, of even style, is necessary. I own five pairs of shoes, myself. A nice pair that are big, chunky and black, a navy blue pair because black doesn't go with everything (or so I learned on What Not to Wear), a black and white striped summer pair (when the big chunky black ones are too hot), a pair of beat-up walking-around-in-retail shoes, and my Wave-Zone Velcro-on sandals (not suitable for dress-up).

But, on the other hand, I own hundreds of pens. I have tons of black pens, blue pens, green pens, and other odd colors-- including hot pink, brown, orange, and yellow. I do now understand why my teachers cringed when I handed them papers written in yellow... I have ballpoint pens (the ones that have not escaped off to live a ball-point pen styled life...), gel pens, felt tip pens, extra fine tip pens, retractable/ clickie pens, glitter pens, "extra smooth" pens, and so on. Hundreds of them. No-- this is not an exaggeration. And I don't like to share with Hubby, either. These are MY pens. =)

Why so many pens? Especially when the bulk of my writing is done on the computer now? It's all about mood for me. What I *feel* like writing with. Each type of pen has a different feeling when the ink is transfered to paper. And this feeling dictates which pen I use. Whether it's the grocery list, writting down a phone message, or making notes on who knows what and when in my novel.

I think this is part of same thing that goes into the twenty-seven black shoes thing. There are different finishes (matte vs. glossy vs. textured), different styles from flats to heels. Different weights-- some are thin and delicate while others are chunky. I don't know if most women really need, say, twenty-seven pairs of shoes... probably no more than I need to buy the set of pens that has the turqoise, purple, and lime AND the one that has red, blue, black. Yeah, I need them.

This is making me want to buy more pens.

What sort of similar-seeming thing do YOU collect?

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