My Grown Up Pen

AlwaysReiding_Pen

I’ve made no secret of my love for pens AND for fountain pens. Since I’d had much more luck with a TWSBI Eco pen (no calluses on my finger like on the Lamy Safari pens I’d started with), I decided to take the plunge and get a TWSBI Vac pen–it’s a pen that runs over $50 (which I never thought I would spend on a pen),

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AlwaysReiding_FoodWarsVol1

Top Chef, Manga-Style: Food Wars Vol 1

Soma is part of his family’s small restaurant–a hole in the wall. While he and his father have a little bit of a competitive relationship, especially when it relates to cooking, his father enrolls Soma in an elite cooking school. The school has stringent standards, and only a ten percent graduation rate.

After a huge cooking competition to prove he belongs,

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AlwaysReiding_Valentines

::Happy Mail:: Valentine’s Day Swap

My penpal group has some pretty awesome swaps now and again. Actually, I enjoy ALL of the swaps throughout the month that the League of Extraordinary Penpals (LEP) does. This month was no different. I got to send a package to Brandi, up north (still in California) and she sent me a bunch of goodies in reply.

The picture is above–some dove hearts (I love these,

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O Canada: Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O’Neill

Lullabies for Little Criminals

Baby is 12 and lives with her father, Jules, in Montreal. Jules and her mother had her when they were 15. In a lot of ways, they have grown up together. But Jules has a heroin problem and terrible lungs, so Baby is in and out of foster care with his hospital trips. As Baby grows up a little too fast,

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Dark Night of the Soul by Gary Reilly

Dark Night of the Soul

Brendan AKA Murph is a cab driver in Colorado. Having been a 14 year veteran of the cab company to support his 4 day a week Gilligan’s Island/writing habit, he’s seen most of what goes on. But one day, everything piles up. First, a little old lady with a hundred dollar bill tries to pay him in pennies. He has to cash a check he was given as payment and ends up picking up a bank robber (unwittingly) and drops him off.

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