Pens without stripes

I think the dreadlocks make me strange. I was at BAM, our Ames replacement for Borders, and I was buying a small journal. For inspiration. To not waste the money I just spent buying a small journal by not using it. Hey, we all play mind games.

Anyway, I was thinking about pens for my journal. A small pen would probably be not very fun to use. I like Zebra brand pens, but I only had one of them and I wanted something that I could keep with the journal. That I was going to use.

So I started looking around. The selection of pens from a bookstore was very... gimmicky. Most were cheap, several were stupid, and none of them had class. But I couldn't find Zebra pens. So I went up and asked if they had any.

"Oh... no, we don't have any of those."

"You don't even know what I'm talking about, do you?"

"No."

Another guy was like, "Hey, I think we used to have them!"

"Not pens shaped like an animal. Despite the name, they do not have stripes or fur."

"What, are they some kind of gimmik?"

"No, they're nice pens!"

So I stopped at Wal-Mart and found them. I got a tiny bottle of vodka too in Salty Watermelon, which tastes like a salted watermelon Jolly Rancher. I thought about keeping the cute bottle, but then I realized I didn't have anything better to put in it than vodka.

So, I found a journal, found pens to go with it, and everyone is done, right? Go home and eat supper?

For some reason, I turned and went back to BAM, pulled my bike up to the door, marched in, pulled out my pens, and said, "I am here to educate you!"

"Oh... I've seen those before!" said one of the guys.

"You guys were looking at me like I was crazy," I explained. "Looking for pens with stripes."

And then I left. That was weird.