Back 2 School! I need to buy pens.

Going back to classes and having homework always makes me feel like I should be in 6th grade, where my fascination for pens with funky designs was at its peak. I had them in a little pink box, and my favorite one had aquatic animals on them. My second favorite was a pen whose plastic shell changed colors with your body temperature. Naturally I'd clench the pen for dear life to make it all bright green, and it would slowly fade back to black.
Ah, the good old days. Of course, I've repressed all the torturous sixth-grade moments with the bullies, the asthma, the puberty, and girls wearing neckties and boy's dress shirts with vests (oh, nope, I still remember that.)
Nowadays 'school' seems more like rush rush rush, gotta get to my assistantship, gotta drop this nonsensical form into a nonsensical box, and gotta find five minutes to eat a S'mores granola bar. But I am loving being in a learning environment again, and I just heard today that my octet will be performed by a contemporary chamber ensemble on their first concert. Very good news, indeed.
I've also posted this collage, which has nothing to do with Bic Pens, or dodgeball bullies, or Octets. It's actually the cover to a box that I covered inside and out with hand-dyed papers, but its images are abstractions of music performances. If you look closely you might be able to spot me as the pink blur. Just kidding. That's probably Jake Shears, from the Scissor Sisters. He and I wear the same shirts from time to time. Maybe we once had the same pens.