(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)
At the end of May, our house was entirely packed up and we were ready to start our journey from Huntsville, Alabama to Berkeley, California. 2,700 miles, 35 hours, and several days of driving, not including stops.
The journey across several vast states was a welcome experience. When you grow up and stay in a particular part of the country for very long, everything around you becomes normal. A massive shake up is good for everyone, and I was excited about the imminent displaced feelings and excitement for the unknown.
As it happened, I packed everything but the essentials. Our storage container was picked up about 5 days before we left home, so we were mostly camping inside our house for that week. Included in the storage container was my collection of pens, inks, paper, as well as all of my camera equipment. I don't remember consciously making the decision to pack all of that stuff in the container, but that's where it ended up when the big push came.
What's a pen addict to do when the collection is taken away, along with the ability to order new stuff to a soon-to-be expired address? Well, in my case: I get to use whatever my absent-minded self forgot to pack in the container. Really, it's like a pen/paper/ink lottery.
When I collected the items that managed to escape the storage container, I was pretty pleased with the resulting limitations. Here's a list of what I currently have with me as we stay in hotels and look for permanent residences in California: