Thursday, January 6, 2011

Pencils

Krispy Kreme

I spotted my classmates, Lennie Chua and Ching Ching, at Krispy Kreme this afternoon. They saw that I was alone, so they invited me to their table. They always make great company.

As our orders were served, the waitress gave us survey forms to fill out. With these survey forms were three pencils: freshly sharpened, the tips about the size of a dot. As she collected the forms, I asked if I could take one pencil home. She said yes without even thinking. I was thrilled.

I'm a fan of pencils. I feel smarter when I use them, especially when I do a lot of thinking—as in the 1996 movie, Harriet the Spy. When I write, I make lots of erasures. Pencils come in handy in those instances.

For our exams, I use a Uni Shakalu 0.5 mechanical pencil. It has been with me since high school. I like mech pens because the strokes are thinner and more consistent. But, to me, mech pens feel a lot more like ball point pens than the real, typical pencils—those that need frequent sharpening.

Pencils remind me of my childhood.

—A favorite pencil was Mongol Number 2. When I exhausted the eraser at the opposite end, I would release the remaining parts hidden by the metallic support through chewing.

—I stabbed a kindergarten classmate in the arm with a blunt pencil. That classmate was a girl. Imagine my horror when I saw the blood coming out. Even so, I was convinced that she deserved it. (I met Arianne Taborete last year in a christening party in which her mother asked me if I was Lance Catedral, and I said yes, and the said mother asked if I still remember her daugher, "'yung sinaksak mo dati"—her words exactly.)

—My father hit my right hand with a black, fat pencil because I was too stubborn. I refused to fill a page with my complete name; this exercise was meant to develop my handwriting. The said pencil got broken in two. I've had excellent handwriting since then. Well . . . until med school.

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8 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Haha. Natawa ako dito Lance. Violent ka palang bata :)
P.S. I really love your blog entries :)
-Yang

Thu Jan 06, 10:30:00 PM GMT+8  
Blogger Lance said...

Marianne—er, Yang—Violent kung violent, pero hindi ko pinahalata. I felt I could get away with it. Now I'm nicer. Haha.

Fri Jan 07, 04:26:00 AM GMT+8  
Anonymous Kat said...

There's a gray dot beside my left knee from when I accidentally stabbed myself there with a sharp pencil. That's as close to a tattoo as I've gotten so far. :))

Fri Jan 07, 03:20:00 PM GMT+8  
Blogger Lance said...

Kat, I'm beginning to suspect that you might be a psychiatric case. Haha.

Fri Jan 07, 08:38:00 PM GMT+8  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

hahaha the joy of using pencils. :)
they're not the best toys for children though. -aa

Sat Jan 08, 05:31:00 PM GMT+8  
Blogger Lance said...

Let's qualify that, AA: for special children.

Sun Jan 09, 03:39:00 PM GMT+8  
Anonymous Ben Anthony Lopez said...

Kuya Lance! I also stabbed someone in the arm with a pencil. The graphite got stuck under the skin! Haha. Violent din ako!

Mon Jan 17, 08:46:00 PM GMT+8  
Blogger Lance said...

Let's form a club, Ben! Haha.

Mon Sep 05, 06:44:00 AM GMT+8  

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