I found an old fountain pen in my drawer yesterday. I decided to try to get the old pen working again, and it took a long time to get the words flowing out of the nib. Now it works fine, writes just as smooth as ever. I guess starting up a journal again after a long fallow period and getting the words to flow here is going to be slow, too. I'm certainly having a hard time thinking of what I will write here every day.

Long ago, I would only write with that fountain pen. What's more, I could use only brown ink. Ironically, when I met my now spouse, he, too, only wrote with a fountain pen filled with brown ink. Talk about a "Dee-doo, dee-doo" Twilight Zone moment! Woo who! Fortunately, we both grew out of those odd affectations.
Finding that fountain pen in amongst a number of others reminded me of another thing we have in common. More like many "things." Namely, all the stuff we have collected over the years.

When we met, he was already a collector of bottles and depression glass. Though I did not have the disposable income at that time to pursue my own penchant for collecting, I had still somehow managed to accumulate a much smaller collection of similar items. Since then, between the two of us, we’ve managed to accumulate quite an unfocused, and eclectic assortment of stuff.

Like most collectors, we are spurred on by finding just one little item and then wondering if there are any more like it. Not only do we collect real antique-ish/collectible, stuff but we also collect some pure junk. Some of the stuff need not even have value.

I'm sure you're familiar with those little glass snowballs which usually have a winter or Christmas theme. Well, I'm not collecting the wonderfully well made European glass snowballs. No siree! I am collecting absurd kitschy snowballs.

That started when I happened to find one which has small figures of two local car dealers inside; when you shake it up money floats around inside. Next I found a promotional product for a new allergy drug addressing the all-important issue of animal dander. It contains a cat playing with a ball of yarn on a rag rug, and when you shake it tiny little white dandruff like things float around. Another has a bald head with hair bits. What really surprises me most is that more than one example of these silly items items exists; and what’s even more surprising is that I am actually able to find them.

Another totally tacky collection category includes commercially made coffee mugs with odd themes. Some in strange shapes like the one with the spine for a handle, or the huge nose on the front, or the pregnant lady shape. Another, for ChemLawn, looks like a flower pot. On other mugs it's the the advertising concept that interests me. I have a couple of old pyrex ones from Armour and Company which says ..."We understand tomorrow's woman!" (They'll need pork products?) Two others advertise Super Wash carwash. Who really loves their local carwash enough to want to own a mug? But it is open 24 hours, in case you need to clean out the trunk where you hid the body at 3 AM.

I also often find things which I think might have future potential for an art projects. I have collected broken glass off the sidewalk, from a car break in, along with a sleazy wig found nearby, along with a hat/mask? (the kind with eyeholes). There's a story there. I have much interesting rusted iron trash... some of which has actually become jewelry. The list of weird things is endless, really. One of my friends found part of a squirrel tail in an alley, which she specifically saved it for me.

Last winter, our car was in the shop and we had to take the bus and walk for a few days. Independently, and unknown to each other, we had each walked through a lot which had some construction debris laying around. When the car was ready, Chuck picked it up. When he returned to the studio he showed me what he found on his way back. He had gone back to that lot and gathered some broken pieces of grating, the exact pieces which I had eyeballed.

We are a strange pair. When it comes to collecting we are both truly incorrigible, and we definitely have way too many Twilight Zone moments.