Pen vs. Pencil

I like pens.

At work today, I had someone ask to borrow a pencil. I didn't have one, and told them that I had a pen, but they refused it! I was really surprised. If only a pencil were available, and I needed a writing utensil right at that moment, I would use it temporarily. But it got me thinking about our preferences ...

Pencils are kind of creepy to me, making a scratching sound as I write. The words never look sharp and clear because the edges of the letters get smudged everywhere, and if I do a lot of writing the lead seems to smear lightly across the page, making it cloudy. Eventually the cloud of lead transfers to my skin, making a shiny gray circle on my hand. I just don't like it.

My co-worker told me that she makes too many mistakes, and must have a pencil. I never make mistakes. (Yeah, right.) No really, I would rather cross-out something, or write-over my spelling error five times until I've almost written-through the page! I would rather do that, than write with a pencil. But, I would still never refuse a pencil in desperation.

Being an Executive Assistant, and a frequent orderer of office supplies, I believe that the "Pen Preferring People" out-number the "Pencil Preferring People". I have bought MANY boxes of pens during 2007 for my team; I can't give you a number of how many. I bought ONE box of pencils, and I was curious, so I just went and looked inside.

It appears my box of one dozen pencils has turned into a bakers dozen! Either they are having babies, or someone decided to join the "Pens Team".