Whenever I’m in a store, I’m often drawn to the “office supplies” aisle. I love stationery stores and stores like Office Depot. I like Post-it notes and paper clips and file folders. And over the last several years, I’ve developed quite a devotion to two particular brands of pens.

Precise V5 PensThe first brand that I love to use is the Pilot Precise V5 in the Ultra-Fine tip. I often use these for grading and for everyday school things. They come in all sorts of colors - I often use either the red, green, or purple colors for grading, though I also like the hot pink color. Jeff is partial to the navy blue; he recently had to ask me to pick up some extra ones for him (I think he suspected that I had stolen his!). Whenever students ask to borrow a pen, they inevitably choose these over ballpoint pens, so I have to resort to hiding them!

My other favorite brand of pen is the Micron brand of pen. These pens are more pricey than the Pilot pens (about $3 per pen). I use these at school Micron Penssometimes, but more often I use them for letters and for taking notes in church. I first heard of these pens in college; I had a Bible professor who recommended them for taking notes in your Bible since they don’t bleed through thin pages and since they come in ultra-ultra-fine points. So I use one of those in church, and then I use the thicker-tipped ones for other things. I usually find these pens only in craft stores like Michael’s (usually in the scrapbooking section); I bought some on Saturday (which inspired me to blog about them!).

Both of these brands of pens are small indulgences that can lift you from the doldrums of using ball-point pens (though ball-points certainly have their uses). But there are many occasions that call for a pen that’s a step above ball-point pens, and these pens are quite delightful!