GIVEAWAY! Hi-Tec C Pens from Tokyo Pen Shop!

I love pens.  I'm very particular about my pens.  And my favorite pen is the Hi-Tec C, available from online retailer of awesomeness Tokyo Pen Shop. 

I fell in love with this site last year when Martha Stewart Living endorsed the Hi-Tec C pens.  Is it not just the most adorable thing you ever saw? 

After my first order, I knew Tokyo Pen Shop and I were in a committed relationship.  The shipping is lightning-fast, and your order comes packaged in a cute little envelope with a personal, hand-written note from shop owner Kimberly. 

So, I emailed Kimberly to ask if she would donate some pens for a giveaway on Same Old Shannon, and I was beyond thrilled when she said yes.  Seriously, right after I got the email from Kimberly, I wrote the following Facebook status in a haze of excitement:

So, the giveaway:

One lucky winner will receive 6 Hi-Tec C pens from Tokyo Pen Shop!  Here's an image of the Hi-Tec C collection from the website:

 

The specific colors the winner will receive are:

• black
• green
• violet
• sapphire blue
• pompadour blue
• wine red

(There is a writing sample with each color ink here.)  

The winner will receive pens with 0.5-mm tips, although the site offers 0.3-mm and 0.4-mm tips as well. 

Here's how you enter:




Leave a comment here with an answer to the following question:

You've just gone back to school with a pencil case full of Hi-Tec C pens!  Your teacher asks you to write an essay on what you did over the summer.  What do you write?  (For blog comment purposes, this can be a 1-3 sentence summary, not a 5-paragraph essay.) 

But wait!  There's more!  

If you "like" Tokyo Pen Shop's Facebook page, come back here and tell me in a separate comment for an extra chance to win.  (The comment can be, "I liked Tokyo Pen Shop on Facebook.") 

This contest is open until Sunday, August 28 until 11:59 CST.  After that I will go to random.org and have it generate a number, and the person who left that comment number will win!  I'll announce the results Monday, August 29 and ask the winner to send me an email with his or her address, which I will pass onto Tokyo Pen Shop. 



But that's not all!

Even if you don't win, you can still get a 15% discount on all purchases at Tokyo Pen Shop by entering code "SHANNON" at checkout.  The discount is valid until October 1, and shipping is always free on orders of $25 or more shipped within the United States. 

Okay, go enter the giveaway!  Good luck!  And thanks a whole heaping lot to Tokyo Pen Shop, not only for giving away free pens, but for making my entire month as well!

Endless Summer

Man, I love summer. 

Everyone loves summer, but having grown up with parents who were teachers, summer was even more meaningful in terms of defining our overall life calendars. 

My life was centered around summer for the 18 years I lived at home, the 4 years I went to college, and the 3 years I worked as a teacher.  It honestly barely occurred to me that there were people who had to work during the summer, until I got a job in the corporate world and became one of those sad people languishing under florescent lights and blasted air conditioning all summer long. 

Those corporate years were not my best summers.  But even in the days of sweating buckets during my walk to the train station in humid August, I could appreciate summer for what it wasn't: namely, winter.  No shoveling snow.  No lost gloves.  No Seasonal Affective Disorder. 

And summer becomes infinitely more important once you have a child. Parents in warmer climates may not realize this, but being cooped up indoors all winter with a baby or small child is not great for your mental health.  You long for the days when you can just pop out your back door for a walk.  A walk ... is that too much to ask?! 

Then when the child becomes a toddler, the battle of the coats begins, and you find yourself on a gray January day, fantasizing about July when you can just pop a pair of sandals on your kid and head out the door. 

So longed for is summer, that it is no surprise that it feels like it takes summer forever to get here.  When it's May 1 and you're still wearing your winter coat, you doubt summer will ever come, and your doubts are only intensified when you're freezing your ass off Memorial Day weekend on the opening day of the pool. 

And then summer finally arrives, and you get this feeling like you must soak up every last second of it. 

We must go to the pool every afternoon!  We must go to the park, the zoo, the splash pad, and the amusement park ... at least twice!  Never mind that you're tired!  No, you can't stay in and watch TV!  You can do that in January!

This excessive use of exclamation points is making me exhausted. 

And that, my friends, is my sad admission:

I'm tired of summer. 

I know, I know, I know.  I just went through a paragraphs-long explanation of why summer is just the greatest season ever.  How could I be tired of it? 

Believe me, I'm as surprised as anybody by this development.  I never expected to ever wish summer would end.  In fact, so worried was I about the fleeting summer, that the week before Memorial Day I had a dream ... nay, nightmare ... that it was already Labor Day and the whole summer was over. 

But now I find myself asking, When will Labor Day get here? 

Part of this desire to move onto the next season has to do with my personal need to compartmentalize periods of time.  Summer is summer, and fall is fall, and this late August part feels kind of neither here nor there.  I mean, technically it is still summer, but the camps are all over, the pool has reduced hours, and the school supplies at Target are all picked through.  The local public schools start back tomorrow, although we have to wait until after Labor Day for Nathan's preschool to start, and I imagine we'll feel even more in limbo during the next two weeks.

I'm also not one for last hurrahs.  They feel like trying to squeeze one last product out of a bygone age, even though in your mind you have moved onto the next age. 

Case in point: The Raging Waters pencil. 

See, sometime in late August of 1989, my mom decided to take my brothers and me to Raging Waters waterpark, as one last summer hurrah before school started.  I was starting middle school in the fall, so that year felt like a really big deal.  Toward the end of the waterpark trip, my mom ducked into the gift shop and bought us each a souvenir pencil, so that we could think of our fun summer outing every time we did our schoolwork with that pencil. 

Well, sorry to sound ungrateful, Mom, but I hated that pencil.  I refused to write with it at school.  (And since young Shannon always carried a minimum of 12 sharpened pencils in her pencil case, I never had to use that one particular pencil.)  Every time I'd look at that pencil I would tear up--yes, literally cry--thinking about how that pencil didn't belong. 

Several years later, in the fall of 1996, I was preparing to head off to college.  The fact that my college was on the quarter system and started a full month later than my high school friends' colleges felt, again, very limbo-ish.  Not to mention I was a blubbering mess, to the point that I am still eternally grateful that my family is still speaking to me after that summer.  I just needed to get to college and get over the initial shock. 

So, the day before college, as we were running last-minute errands, my mom suggested we pop into Starbucks to get coffee.  And I, literally, asked, "What would be the point?" 

Now, being a mother myself, I realize that the point was that my mom was maybe trying to soak up one last moment with her firstborn before she went away to college.  But, being a mom myself, I also realize that you always step aside and put your child's feelings before your own.  So we didn't go for coffee. 

Again, sorry Mom.  But in my mind, I was already away at college.  I needed to move on.

And that's how I feel right now, in this moment, at the end of August 2011.  It's time to move on. 

Obviously I'm not as dumb and dramatic as I was about the pencil or the coffee, but I do still feel this really strong longing to move on to the next season.  I'm ready for structure and cooler temperatures and pretty leaves during afternoons at the park.  I'm ready for chili and apple-picking and corn mazes. 

Some people might take exception to this wishing away of the present.  It is true that life is short, and we should seize the moment.  It is also true that, while the autumn is glorious, the season after it is much less so, and a wish for fall to hurry up is therefore a wish for the winter to hurry up as well.  It's better to just live in the moment and appreciate today.

But I like to think that there's a hint of optimism, or at the very least, acceptance, in my attitude.  The seasons are going to change anyway, and we might as well accept it.  That fall that seemed nightmarish back in May?  It now feels very, very welcome. 

I dare say it, but I'm actually going to get excited about the first snow of the winter, too.

Because, ultimately, the change of seasons is a comforting rhythm of life.  Some may choose to fight it, but I choose to accept it.  

From the "There's a First Time for Everything" Files: I Refurbish a Dresser!

I find DIY/home remodeling blogs kind of boring.  But hopefully that's just me, because I'm about to tell you all about how I refurbished and old dresser for my home office!

Here's a picture of what the dresser originally looked like.  In the true spirit of "before" pictures, it's a little bit dark and blurry:

First I took all the drawers out and unscrewed the handles.  Then I coated the whole thing with primer:

Next I painted it blue.  The color is Benjamin Moore St. Tropez Bay, #2128-30. 

I wanted to give my dresser sort of a distressed look.  See, with the distressed look, minor flaws look like they were intentional.  It's like, to quote Pee-Wee Herman, "I meant to do that." 

So, to create the distressed look, I sanded down various edges with 100-grit sandpaper.  According to the Interwebs, you are supposed to sand any corner where natural wear and tear might occur, like from people brushing past that corner. 

Next, I went to my least-favorite do-it-yourself home repair conglomerate and purchased new handles for the cabinets:

Then I realized that two of the handles required longer screws than the ones that came with the handles, so I ... got mad.  And then the next day I went to my local Ace hardware, where the super nice lady helped me pick out screws. 

Except, here's the thing: If you need to install two handles, and each handle requires two screws each, you need four screws, not two. 

(And it's not like I spend my days editing documents containing just those types of word problems or anything.) 

But I made do with what I had, and the handles got screwed on, and here's the finished dresser:

Not pictured: weird smeary stain-type thing that happened when child spilled that oil diffuser on top.  Bill said, "Well, you wanted it to look distressed, right?" 

I was, in fact, distressed.  Except, I mean, I meant to do that. 

SuperIma Sunday Check-In: Vaguely Philosophical and Slightly Different Format Edition

Every Sunday as I sit down to write my check-in, I reflect back on my week. 

And I can't ever think of a damn thing to say. 

I mean, not literally.  Every week I could say that I cooked and cleaned and did laundry and a million other boring life-sustaining household chores.  Some weeks I can reflect back on special, unique events.  I could talk about various professional endeavors. 

But I guess what I'm unable to do is sit here and compose a one-sentence evaluation of the week.  As in, "Last week was _______________."

I guess maybe that sort of fill-in-the-blank life summary doesn't really make sense, outside of the context of, say, first grade. 

Last week was.  

Happy things happened, frustrating things happened, I displayed some behaviors I was proud of and some behaviors I was not-so-proud of.  The not-so-proud behaviors aren't interesting or scandalous.  I'm just talking about things I shouldn't have eaten or times I should have worked out when I didn't.  Or times I let my kid watch too much TV.  Even my transgressions are sort of boring.

Lest you think this is getting a little bit sad, let me remind you that I love boring.  No news is good news and all that. 

In fact, no news is good news could be my life motto. 

Because, really, isn't most of life composed of mundane, everyday moments? 

I always think it's strange that realtors like to point out that a particular house is a "great space for entertaining."  I mean, yes, the concept of entertaining evokes all kinds of positive, happy moments among friends and loved ones, and that's just the kind of good feeling a realtor wants you to associate with the house.  But, really, what percentage of time in a house is spent entertaining?  Even avid entertainers only entertain like, what, two times a month?  That's about 100 hours a year of entertaining, versus the thousands of hours you spend every year in your home doing everyday tasks.  Why can't a realtor say something like, "This would be a great bathroom in which to brush your teeth every morning?"

Because everyday grooming tasks and household chores are boring at best, annoying at worst.  Nobody looks forward to buying a house so they can wash dishes in it. 

But, lately I've been challenging myself to be more appreciative of the little things in life. 

Let me be clear: I will never love doing the laundry.  I can step back and be grateful that we have a washer and dryer in our home, and plenty of clothes and linens to wash.  That still doesn't make it fun to fold a pile of laundry as high as my waist, just like I did last week, and just like I will do next week. 

But maybe I can at least move away from out-and-out hating my house and all the chores I have to do in it.  It is not that I literally hate my house.  I like my house.  I think it's a nice house.  It's just that I hate sitting in it and reflecting on how the floor needs to be vacuumed and the walls need to be painted, and why can't it be more like so-and-so's house or that house I saw in a magazine? 

I just want to move toward a life where I can focus more on what's going right than on what's going wrong. 

This goal is neither specific nor measurable.  It's more of an attitude I'd like to cultivate than a goal I'd like to achieve. 

So, this week my goal is to let whatever I do be enough. 

Stranger Than Fiction: Part 1

So, you know what site I haven't mentioned lately?  NaBloPoMo, National Blog Posting Month!  I haven't officially signed up there for any of the months this year, even though I'm trying to post 365 posts in all this year, more of a NaBloPoYe.  But since I like the freedom of being able to skip a day here and there and then double up later, that didn't really seem to be in the spirit of NaBloPoMo's "post every day for a month."  So no NaBloPoMo this year for me. 

However, I do like the writing prompts at NaBloPoMo, because sometimes I need help thinking of something interesting to blog about, so boring is my life.  And when I moseyed over to the Prompts tab yesterday, you know what I discovered?  This month's theme is "Fiction"!  And I was just about to write a post about books! 

So I'm going to go through and answer all the prompts for August.  There are maybe about 20-ish, because they only give them on the weekdays, and I think sometimes they just randomly forget to post one.  I'll compose an x-part series answering the August prompts.  That x is a variable, and not Roman numeral 10.  See, you can tell it's a variable because it's italicized. 

(The previous sentence would be an example of the kind of exciting things I deal with in my everyday life.  Italicize all variables, people.  Remember it.  Live it.  Oh, and side note, remember how Richard Gere's character in Runaway Bride had a cat named Italics?  Best cat name ever!)

Anyway, my point was, I don't know how many posts it's gonna take to answer all the prompts, but I'm gonna do them all.  This time I'll answer them in order from earliest to latest prompt.  Here goes:

---------------------------------------------

August 1: What is your favourite book?  [Note British-ized spelling is theirs, not mine.]

Let me say first, that for me at least, book quality is context-specific.  If I read a book in a relatively happy situation, I'm gonna like it more than a book that I read in a stressful or annoying situation.  So I'm likely to enjoy a book more if I read it on vacation than if I read it while waiting in line at the DMV.  Obviously any given book can be read under many different circumstances, since most books aren't read in one sitting.  And a really good book can transcend poor circumstances, and vice-versa.  I'm just saying, sometimes I don't give books a fair shake because of outside circumstances. 

Case in point: all the books I've read this summer.  Since the nature of my freelance project is sort of unpredictable, sometimes I get a whole bunch of work sent to me all at once, and I don't have that much time to read for pleasure.  So I'm trying to parcel out a book into several minuscule chunks, and I forget what happened because it's been so long, and besides I'm sick of reading anyway because I read all day for work.  So, this summer I haven't really liked anything I've read.

So, back to the original question, what is your favorite book?  My favorite book is The Time Traveler's Wife, which I read during a retreat to a fancy hotel/spa in Palm Springs that my husband's company paid for.  So, as you can see, my love of that book was partially context-specific, because who doesn't love reading out by a pool after a relaxing mani/pedi?  But I think most people liked that book, no matter where they read it. 

Other books I like: The Help, Room, Hunger Games Trilogy, It's Kind of a Funny Story, Bossypants, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn ... those are the only ones I can think of right now.  I also reserve a special category for "Best Book I Was Required to Read in High School," which is To Kill a Mockingbird. 

August 2: Who is your favourite author?  

I really don't have a favorite author.  I find that often an author can hit it out of the park with one book, but then his/her other book(s) may not be very good. 

August 3: Have you ever wished you could enter a book? 

Honestly, no.   To make a book interesting, there has to be a conflict, and why would I want to voluntarily enter into conflict?

August 4: Which character would you most like to meet?  

The Man With the Yellow Hat from Curious George.  That dude needs a makeover.  And I'd want to find out what his name is.  But since he's a grown man who has a pet monkey he treats like a child, and since he voluntarily wears the same outfit every day, and it's yellow, I think I'd insist upon meeting him in a public place. 

August 5: What is the best first sentence you can think of off the top of your head?

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."  Though generally speaking, reading A Tale of Two Cities was not the best of times for me.  It was sophomore year in high school, and like most high school students I was busy with sports and other activities to list on my college applications, and so I waited until the last minute to read A Tale of Two Cities.  It was probably about 3 a.m. when I finally got to "It is a far, far better thing that I do than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known."  So the night I read A Tale of Two Cities was not the far, far better rest that I have ever known, but being a teenager, I was totally fine running on four hours of sleep. 

August 8: Do you always tell the truth?  

Mostly.  I am not a very good liar.


August 9: What do you think about white lies?

That term is racist. 

August 10: Fictionalize a boring part of your day and retell it.

See here.

August 11: Unpack the statement: truth is stranger than fiction.

I don't want to. 

August 12: What character would you never want to meet?

Old Nick, the rapist/captor from Room.  

August 15: What is your favourite place to read?

First and foremost, a beach.  There is nothing more peaceful than reading on a beach.  These days I very seldom get to read on a beach, though.  Mostly I do my reading in my bed.  Or on the elliptical at the gym.  And while the elliptical is not my favorite thing to do, I do appreciate that I'm able to distract myself with reading while I'm working out.  Also the ability to read in the middle of the day is a good incentive to get me to the gym.  

August 16: Do you prefer to own books or borrow them from a friend or the library?  


I like to mix it up.  If I'm at the library and they have something I want on the Hot Copies shelf, I will certainly borrow it.  I feel like anytime you borrow a book, you are doing your part for the environment and saving money.  However, I have a Kindle, and that's good for the environment too, not to mention fast, easy, lighter to carry around, and easier to read on the elliptical at the gym.  So, I do end up purchasing more books in Kindle form than I check out from the library.  Very occasionally I have a need to purchase a book in paper form, because I just want to own that book.  Tina Fey's Bossypants is an example.  I just wanted to keep that one in hard copy form in my personal library.  But usually I am just as happy to get rid of books or own them in e-book form, because my husband's books take up more than enough room in our house for the both of us. 

August 17: Talk about your favourite bookstore.

I feel like my favorite bookstore should be some quaint little independent mom 'n pop store, but I like the big-name chains like Borders and Barnes & Noble better.  Of course, Borders is out of business, so that really just leaves Barnes & Noble.  Except I never buy anything there, I just browse.  I really only get books off of Amazon for my Kindle.  So, I guess Amazon is my favorite bookstore.  I do like the idea of a small bookshop with a cat that lives there.  But I guess Amazon has a bookstore cat.  Her name is Leia. 

August 18: What was the last book you read?  

I read Sisterhood Everlasting, the latest in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series.  It was so. sad.  So sad.  I just wanted to get through it to get all that sadness out of my life. 

Currently I am reading a historical fiction novel, Rules of Civility.  It's one of those books that sort of gives you a slice of everyday life in a different era (the Great Depression).  I like that kind of book, but it may not be for everyone.  I do think the author is really good, although I admit that it's one of those books where every so often you just have to accept that you have no idea what she is talking about. 

August 19: Do you like paper books or e-readers?

I kind of already answered that question above.  Mostly I'm moving over to e-readers, because it's nice to just be able to think of a book you want and then have it almost instantly. 

And, with that, I am caught up on prompts. 
 



 

One-Liners

You know what's going on with me? 

Work, work, work, work, work. 

Oh, and work. 

It's pretty freaking awesome. 

As stupid as it sounds, I missed saying, "I have to work." 

What?! I said it sounded stupid. 

And work is just all the more awesome now that I have my very! own! desk!

I feel important and useful again.

Nathan has his own desk, too, a.k.a. the new coffee table, and we sit, side-by-side, doing our work.

It's not quite as cute as it sounds, though, because one of us is illiterate and interrupts the other one of us approximately every 3.4 seconds to ask for a direction to be read from his sticker book.

Still, I feel like a better mom because at least now I'm making him do some kind of constructive activity while I work, and not just popping him in front of the TV all the time.

Although I get a lot more done when he is watching TV.  No reading involved there.

Today I was juggling paid work, childcare, grocery procurement, exercise, laundry, cooking, and transporting my husband to/from the train station.  I feel pretty badass right now.

It doesn't take much.   

You know what I like about work?  I like how I no longer feel guilty that my house isn't perfect, or that I don't have all the laundry done, or that I'm not making elaborate meals from scratch, because, hey, I have to work.  And granted the house was never perfect, and the laundry was never done, and the meals were never elaborate or from scratch, but at least now I don't feel so guilty about these shortcomings. 

I'd write more, but I have to work. 

(IT NEVER GETS OLD!)

You Guys, You Guys, YOU GUYS!

Yesterday the following relatively minor but still awesome things happened to me:

• So, you know how I really have a special interest in pens and all things stationery/office supplies?  And you know how I have massively gushed about my love of online retailer Tokyo Pen Shop?  Well, I emailed Kimberly, the shop's owner, and asked her if she would give me some Hi-Tec C pens for a blog giveaway, and she said yes!  You guys, this is kind of huge for me, because this is my first time pitching a company, and I was so excited to get a positive response!  Especially from a retailer I love so much!  Anyway, the giveaway will have 5 pens, and when we work out the details of what colors they will be, I will put up the official giveaway post.  This is not the official giveaway post.  You won't win anything from commenting on this post, although of course I still love getting comments.  And also, if you have input on what colors you'd like to see in the giveaway, speak now or forever hold your peace!
• Speaking of giveaways, Yankee Candle is sending me a sample pack of their upcoming product line, and I will be doing a giveaway for that, too.  I don't know at all what is in the sample pack, so again, the official giveaway entry post will have to come later.  You won't win any candles commenting on this post either.  But you will win my appreciation!
• As unrelated as you could possibly get from the topic of blog giveaways, I had my annual physical at the doctor yesterday.  Last year he harped on me for being overweight, and I was afraid I would get harped on again this year because I still am overweight.  But, he commended me on my loss of what he called "a tremendous amount of weight," which I think was a bit of an exaggeration because I was 19 pounds down from where I was last year.  But still, as you probably guessed from yesterday's post, I really needed some weight-loss encouragement.  Honestly, that compliment from the doctor buoyed my spirits into the evening, so that I was still a responsible eater for the rest of the day (i.e., I did not reward myself with food for being done with an annoying checkup).  
• I finally finished assembling the desk and coffee table!  You guys, I am the worst at assembling furniture.  I aspire to reach a level of personal wealth that allows me to exclusively purchase already-assembled furniture.  I always laugh because at Ikea they have a picture diagram, and it goes from a panel where the person is standing there with a box, to a panel where people are sitting around on the assembled furniture, smiling.  Did many hours pass between the assembly and the smiling, so that the family has forgiven each other over the fight that inevitably occurred during the frustration of the furniture assembly?  Or in Sweden do they actually send families a government-appointed furniture assembler?  Anyway, I had some screws and things left over from the desk assembly, which ... may not be a good thing.  But, whatever, it's a desk.  It's not like somebody has to sit or sleep on  it, so it's not exactly a safety issue if there are a few screws missing.  Here's a photo of the assembled desk and coffee table:

And an equally-boring side view:

As you can see, it's kind of a work in progress.  We don't have chairs yet, the walls are bare, and that big white thing is the bed that we still have in there.  As I am kind of a "let's get it done now" kind of person, I don't like having a work in progress.  I kind of hate home decorating.  

•  My kid went to sleep in his own bed, BY HIMSELF!  I fully admit that we achieved this awesome feat because we imposed both a threat, and a bribe.  The threat was that he wouldn't get any screen-based activity the following day if he got out of his bed, which was a threat I was reluctant to impose because it did seem like he was legitimately scared in his room by himself.  (Also, never give a punishment that actually punishes you.)  But when I saw that he could easily go to bed by himself when a babysitter was here, it dawned on me that he was probably just pulling this "I'm scared" crap for me.  So ... enter the threat.  But I also like to put a positive spin on things (that is, I am a big fat softy), so when he asked if he could have an incentive chart for going to bed by himself, I said yes.  But then I asked him what he wanted for his incentive, he said cash.  So now I am literally paying him to stay in his bed.  The going rate for staying in bed is $2/night, but I made it clear that we are only doing this for 5 nights in a row and not that I'll be cutting him a $60 check on the first of every month.  I think with the five-day cap I am still keeping it in the realm of "a positive reward for a temporary period where we're enforcing a new behavior" and not "my kid is so spoiled and/or I am so desperate that I'm paying him for something he should do anyway."  Right ... RIGHT?!  And besides, at least it's a bit of a money lesson for him.  RIGHT?!