(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And her latest book, Root Rot, is now available for pre-order!)
Know what's the worst birthday present ever? A tornado. Not the Retro 51 kind--that would be a lovely gift--I'm talking about a twister. Yaknow, the kind that hit my house last week.
Know what's the best birthday present ever? When your dad sends you his old 4-pen set of Montblanc Meisterstuck pens--the pencil, ballpoint, rollerball, and fountain pen.
Kinda wild when both happen on the same day. A storm of emotions, one might say.
On Tuesday May 21st, I got the coolest package in the mail--all of the Meisterstuck Montblanc pens my dad bought when he lived in Switzerland twenty years ago. I knew he owned the fountain pen, as he had me help him maintain it, but I didn't even know about the others till I opened the surprise box just before heading off to work. They all need a little TLC to revive them, but my jaw hit the floor when I saw them.
That night, I sped home from work, not just because I wanted to get back to my pens, but because there was a nasty storm on my heels. Ten minutes after I got through the door, an EF1 tornado hit my house.
That's small for a tornado (extra fine, you might say), and thank goodness, because we had no warning and no sirens--we were up in our bedrooms, which were mercifully spared by the two 150-year-old Hickory trees that came down at just the right angle to not murder us. Our tree service called them widowmaker trees, and said we were about a 40-degree angle away from tragedy.
So, lucky to have survived the storm! And lucky to have this amazing set of pens. Our balcony, yard, shed, and my car were not so lucky. RIP.
At least I'll be signing all that insurance and contractor paperwork in style.
Stay safe, pen fam! And if there's a bad storm, go to the basement--don't wait for the warning.
If you need me, I'll be chopping wood. For a minute. Could probably make a cool pen (or a few thousand pens) out of this Hickory!
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