Pens! Pens! Pens!

I have lost my two favorite pens somewhere, somehow, and I am devastated. See, you may not know this about me, but I'm pretty much constantly on the lookout for the perfect pen. These past few days? I have been obsessed. An idiosyncrasy has revealed itself to me.

See, there are a lot of things to look out for when choosing a pen to use. Type of ink, for one thing. I prefer gel pens over ballpoint pens because the ink tends to flow more smoothly. Fine point over medium, and if possible, extra fine. 0.3-0.4mm extra fine. This goes for pencils, too. I cannot use 0.7mm pencils or pens or anything of the sort. 1.0mm? Blasphemy! I have only found one ballpoint pen that I really like (the Pilot Better Retractable pen [fine point]), but I can no longer find it in stores.

I blame the cultivation of this obsession on my Calculus TA during the fall of 2007 (that's right, I'm talking to you, Steffen... not that you read this) for giving me the the best pen known to man: The Pilot Hi-Tec-C (0.4mm) in Black. It's supa fine and doesn't bleed through (most) notebook pages. It also comes in a rainbow of colors ranging from Blue, Black, Blue-Black (?), Brown, Brown-Black (again, ?) Mandarin Orange, Clear Blue, Strawberry... I think there are around 27.5million different colors. Swoon!

Unfortunately, this pen is, for some reason, NOT SOLD IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

What the hell, Pilot? What makes you think this is a good idea? I used to perfectly happy with your Pilot Precise V5 and your Pilot G2 but now whenever I write with it the width of my letters seems monstrous in comparison to the fine lines I grew used to with your Hi-Tec-C (0.4) and G-Tec-C4 (0.3). You draw me in and then leave me hanging! WHY?!

Stupid pens. I have found you online, but you require a $5 shipping fee and I am cheap! (But not cheap enough to buy a bad pen.)

I'm currently using a Muji 0.38mm pen, or so it claims, but I think it's lying to me. Plus the ink shows through and then my notes look messy. I can't have those benzene rings showing all over the place. Clean! Thin! Lines! Why are you kept from me!

Oh great, now I sound like a crazy person. But honestly, a good, really good pen is hard to come by. Now excuse me while I go squander some money on pens.