Thursday, January 15, 2015

PENMANSHIP 101

Yes, actual cursive!

A couple of months ago I was trying to read my own handwriting and was struggling to make out the scribble, as usual.  I suddenly realized how depressing that was.  I never had beautiful handwriting but  what it had degraded into was so far from art and culture that I was ashamed.  Yes, shame on me for being so lazy and pudgy and sloppy and, well, modern. 
I love gorgeous handwriting and calligraphy and always find scenes in movies that show a lot of handwritten notes and people at their writing desks to be quite sexy.  And here my lazy modern scribble was a distinct mockery of that romantic art.  Something needs to be done!


I started using these children's practice sheets ( you can get here).  Exactly like grade school worksheets with the dotted line in the middle.  They're awesome!  It's actually really fun being back in first grade.  Especially with no teacher and no smarty pants with excellent penmanship to make you feel under pressure.  You realize the genius in that paper with the top and bottom bold line and the fainter broken line in the middle.  You have no choice but to make your letters the proper size.  I can remember dying to get to use the regular 'college ruled' paper like my older brother and sister.  I just didn't appreciate how good I had it ; )


The next thing I did was to start writing letters to a friend a few states away.  We text all the time, of course and the 'pen pal' thing is one way ( not everyone wants to get down and dirty with stationary, stamps, mailboxes...).  But I'm committed.  It has been several months and I have written a letter a week.  And I have improved.  I am now kind of proud of my envelopes and I hilariously fret over which stamps to buy.


That's right people!  And yes, that round one is a stamp!


I cannot wait to use these.  I just used up my really pretty bird stamps and was thinking I would have to buy something dumb and generic and OMG... classic Batman.
I went through my pen holder and put all the pens into categories of CRAP AND I HATE THESE, GOOD AND I LIKE THESE, and SOMEDAY I WILL GET GOOD ENOUGH FOR THESE.
as follows:


I can't imagine a pen I hate writing with more than the TD Bank pen.  And I have tons of them.


I totally thought I lost my silver Tiffany pen but it turns out it was just really tarnished and in my pen holder the whole time.  I polished it up for the photo.


These disposable fountain pens are inexpensive and very nice but for some reason my handwriting always looks shaky and I make mistakes more often than with a ball point.  I assume it's because those pens make me nervous somehow, like they are a little out of my league.  But I will continue this discipline until I have flawless writing and can get up the nerve to try a real fountain pen.


Oh yes, this will be me.


And then one day I will be sending some very, very classy mail indeed.

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