Noodling Around

I've been cooped up in my apartment, bent over my computer for what seems like days now without a break.

As much as I get antsy without constant internet access, I needed to remind myself that there is an offline world, so off I went into the Great Beyond (which is defined as anything outside a one block radius of my building).

I had a mission.

First, some background: last night, I was looking for a pen. For some reason, every single pen in my apartment chose the same day to die. I had vague memories of stashing rollerball refills in some box in my bedroom, so I tore through everything in search. I didn't find any refills, but I DID find an old Rotring Series 600 fountain pen with an Extra Fine nib that I had appropriated off my father's desk a couple decades ago.


As far as I can tell, this is a picture of a pen of the same make and model as my own. After some Googling, I can say with confidence that it's the Newton model, similar to the model that preceded it, but without the knurled grip.

It's made of solid brass, with a matte silver finish; it's a HEAVY pen. I rather like the weight, the feeling of substance in my hand.

So this afternoon, my mission was to find a pen/ink store where I could buy ink cartridges, a fountain pen piston converter (so I can use bottled ink with it too, if I should ever want to), and bottled ink.

But I wanted to purchase these things at a store not staffed with teenagers, but with old men passionate about all things related to ink and fountain pens. I wanted both the store and its employees to be old and musty and marked with permanent ink stains. You know what I'm talking about - the kind of place where, if I were to ask an innocent question about Noodler's ink, it would unleash a dissertation of the history of the brand, the advances in waterproofing, and how the "Heart of Darkness" color has a surprising amount of blue and, if you look closely, some green as it dries on the page, but it depends on the weight and composition of the paper. I made up that last bit, but you get what I mean. I wanted obsessive, knowledgeable passion.

I didn't find it - not the passion or the things I wanted to buy (and I had gotten the impression from my Googling that these are not obscure or difficult items to find). I'll try again perhaps tomorrow.