Ten Pens

Remember that lame thing everyone was doing on Facebook awhile back?  It was called "Twenty Things" or "Forty Things" or "A Whole Bunch of Unrelated Self-Centered Thoughts" or something like that.  Somehow it became undeservingly and wildly popular in a short amount of time.  (Which, normally, never happens on the Internet.)

Well.  I hereby present Ten Pens.  It's way more fun, and just as free.

Take ten pens from around your house.  They must be free promotional pens.  If you're short a few, I'll lend you some: I rounded up 58 just by looking in the study.  They're all going to school, in case anyone there wants to play (and because, seriously, they seem to multiply exponentially every 13 days or so.  I'm worried about the load-bearing capacity of my desk.)

Now, try to imagine how they might have entered your house.  Word limits are lame, but keep it short or your audience might fall asleep.  (All three of them.) Here are mine:

1. Mini Cooper: Let's Motor. This is one of those cool moving pens; when you tilt it, the little red car sliiiiiiides back and forth from the Hollywood sign to the Statue of Liberty.  And it was completely free!  All we had to do was buy a car.


2. Revlimid capsules. Please see accompanying full prescribing information, including Boxed WARNINGS. I guess these prescription drug giveways must work, or no one would continue doing them.  I just have one question: "Boxed warnings"?  They don't sound too bad.  Better than the free-roaming warnings that catch you by surprise, anyway.


3. My school. Awwww. Actually, to be fair about 12 of the 58 were from my school.


4. My school's archrival school. What th--?!  I did tutor a couple of students from there, but I think I would have noticed this pen before now.  At the very least, I would think my school's pens would be ostracizing it, but noooo, they're playing nice and being friends.


5. Best Wishes in the year 2003, Enslin & Son, Hattiesburg, Mississippi. My father's family's butcher shop.  We last visited there for my grandmother's funeral.  It was a sad time, but wonderful to see them all, and I loved the tour of the slaughterhouse and my dad's accompanying anecdotes from the summer he worked there as a teenager.  We also got married in 2003, so I think their best wishes might have helped a little.


6. Mark & Anna's Wedding: The Highlight of 2009. Most original wedding favor ever, from a very original couple!


7. Sauza Tequila. Once again, what th--?!  We don't own a bottle, and I've never even heard of that brand.  Tequila is not my scene.


8. Microsoft. Steve, this means nothing to us!  We swear!  We don't know how it got here or where it came from!  We're burning it right this very instant and burying the ashes in the back yard under the Apple tree!  Isn't that poetic justice?  Steve?  STEVE!  DON'T YOU WALK AWAY!


9. Kone Elevators & Escalators. Courtesy of my husband, who goes to trade shows and can't turn down a freebie to save his life.  Really, if he had to choose between certain death and a duffel bag of stuffed animals with building product manufacturers' logos imprinted on their bums, I might have to raise Maia by myself.


10. My high school alma mater. This isn't technically a pen, it's a letter opener -- but it counts solely because of the number of times I've reached for it intending to pick up a pen.  A clever ruse, but I'm wise to it now.  Away, fiend!  Into the bag with the others!

Okay.  Your turn.  Comment here with a link to your Ten Pens post!  If it doesn't go viral within a week, I'll be personally offended.

Comments

[Kirsten]

Okay, before I play, I have another comment. Or two. Why do you have a letter opener from our high school alma mater?
"Mark and Anna". I realize Anna is a fairly popular name, but I couldn't help but wonder if this was your childhood friend Anna. She was (is) quite an original if I remember correctly. I loved seeing her again at your wedding.

[Emily]

The letter opener came with one of those "please give us money" letters. Don't tell me you've somehow escaped those? And yes, Anna is just about the only friend I've known longer than you. :) She and her husband are the world's most perfect match. They will celebrate their first anniversary in ten days!

[Kirsten]

I have moved quite frequently since college, so I definitely escape the requests for money.
Congratulations to Anna!

Okay, the pens. 10 promotional pens were hard to find around my house. In fact, 10 is all I could find and I had to scrounge for them. But, I did it for you. ;) In no particular order...

1. Baysaver Technologies, Inc. Engineering Stormwater Solutions
I was sure this was my husband's because I found it in his drawer and I had never seen it before. I looked it up, though, and found that the address is in Mount Airy, MD. I have never even heard of them. Hmmm.

2. ICE Safety Solutions: CPR/First Aid/AED Training
This was from the Teacher Inservice where we all got First Aid/CPR Certified. I'm not sure I was supposed to keep the pen.

3. Coast Hotels and Resorts
The Santa Cruz one was where we had our Rehearsal Dinner and spent the night after our wedding. It is no longer called Coast Santa Cruz Hotel, but Dream Inn Santa Cruz. It has been re-done to look very retro. Blechh.

4. KIRSTEN
Okay, I know this is a stretch, but I didn't have anything else to choose from to make ten. My first year in California, the students I was tutoring made me a pen. The ink in this pen is very minimal because most of the pen is made up of stacked ceramic beads with letters. I actually had to take the pen apart and rearrange the letters because it spelled KRISTEN when they first gave it to me.

5. Resources for Reading
This online reading recovery store is in South San Francisco, but I really don't know how I ended up with their felt-tip on one end & highlighter on the other end pen.

6. Fountain Grove Inn
I think this is my husband's because it's from Santa Rosa. I never lived up there, but my husband did.

7. Grace Community Covenant Church
From our first year of marriage when we were trying to find a church home.

8. Caring Solutions: Peace of Mind in Homecare
Perhaps this was where the kids at our church went carolling around Christmastime. I was at home with a sick, sleeping baby.

9. Covenant Resource Center
Technically, it's a pencil. Our denomination's Resource Center probably gave this out to all the Pastors in their "goody bag" at the Mid-Winter Conference this year? (Churches are a popular place to receive pens and pencils)

10. Santa Fe Sage Inn
I have never been to Santa Fe. Maybe I steal pens.

[Kirsten]

Oops, I was supposed to put that on my blog and only comment with a link to my Ten Pens.
Clearly, my ability to read directions has not improved since High School.
For the sake of your readers, you may delete my comment. I would, but there is no option to do so myself.

[Emily]

See how awesome the Internet is, everyone? Kirsten and I can have a quasi-conversation without actually speaking to each other!

Also, she is able to confess her Pen Thievery publicly and without fear of retribution, since no one can correctly spell her name anyway . . .

In other news, my aunt Connie wants to share her list, but is too technologically-impaired to do so, so here it is:

Ten Pens from Connie

#1. Celebrex (celecoxib capsules) - my brother who is a family practice doc was in town for a pain management conference -- this is a drug for arthritis pain.
#2 - Backstreet Boys - AWESOME!! probably from Mary's 5th or 6th grade obsession.
#3 - Dunder Mifflin Paper Company - complete with the name Dwight K. Schrute's and the title: Assistant To The Regional Manager (with "To" and "The" whited out!!)
#4 - Little Havana - apparently a restaurant in Baltimore.... what tha'??? How'd THAT get here??? (Editor's note: stolen by one of your daughters during Happy Hour last summer, probably. As I recall, there were several missing when the evening was over.)
#5 - The University Club - a Washington D.C. hobnob club my husband likes.
#6 - Nordstrom (Dept. Store) - my daughter worked there; my son-in-law still does.
#7 - Blue Frog Imports.biz - a local South American import botique.
#8 - Simplicity - actually from a vacuum store my cousin manages in Indiana - to top is shaped like an upright vacuum. Cool.
#9 - The Metropolitan Hotel - don't know where... they're listed in Detroit, Toronto, NY, etc. But the cool thing is it's a flat pen. Yep, it won't roll off the desk.
#10 - The Brown Palace Hotel, Denver Colorado. - Because of our last name, one can only imagine how many items we have from this hotel that Billy visited...

[Lauren]

what to do, what to do...to cave to peer pressure and post my list here, ignoring Emily's instructions but fitting in with everyone else, or to do what the teacher says ... i can't handle the pressure!! :-)