:Pencil:

My name is Sam, and I am somewhat addicted to office supplies.

I don't know what it is, but I am. Whether it's the clean, fresh look of a brand-new 10-cent notebook (or a stack of thirty for only $3!), the sharpness of a new highlighter, or the novelty of owning 27 different shades of Sharpies, there's just something about all things stationery that draws me in.

I'm not even kidding--these things full-on inspire me. I've got poetry and short pieces of prose I've written in ode to a new pen or a blank sheet of paper (ironically enough, neither of which are new OR blank by the time the piece is finished being written). Empty journals beg me to fill them, blank papers scream to be noticed. 

The smell of a freshly sharpened pencil--the taste of the wood and cheap paint as you ponder a thought before writing... The feel of the callouses on your fingers every time you pick up a pen after a long separation from this tangible extension of your imagination...

For me, there is very little that compares with the feeling of approaching a new writing project or exercise with a new medium or method of transferring thought to paper (and, in an INCREDIBLE break from my self-proclaimed love of the physical, tangible, "real thing"), or filling the blankness of a white screen with line upon line of thought.

I feel like when stores hire marketing executives, they hire specific. As in specifically for me. It's like Staples and Walmart and Chapters and all these places get together every back-to-school season and sit down to figure out what is going to tempt me most to come in to their stores and purchase sixty new pens (I already have a gallon-sized ziplock of them at home). I somehow have to fight the urge to drool over the flyers much as a kid drools over advertisements from Toys 'R' Us, or the local bulk food candy store. And then I have to stand strong as I walk past the shelves upon shelves of back to school supplies, always located conveniently to your left or right IMMEDIATELY once you walk into any major box store anytime after the beginning of August. 

And the thing is,  I don't even always want to buy these things just because I need them... Matter of fact, often, I don't (and thank goodness I've been able to translate that into generally not buying them)...it's an urge because I just want them. It's like some kind of weird infatuation. 

Maybe it's because it feels like in some way I am 'buying inspiration'. Maybe I feel like it'll spark some latent creativity...maybe it's a somewhat Pavlovian response to the fact that these inanimate objects have, indeed, fostered creativity in the past...much as the proverbial 'new page' has given many a man a new start in life.

Most people don't understand what's so exciting about a pen. Or a journal. Or a highlighter. But I've come to grips with that. I don't need everyone to understand...

...just so long as they keep making office supplies.

My name is Sam, and I am *somewhat* addicted to office supplies.