Don’t come at me Disney, that show never existed and has been gone a long time. And yeah, we all knew that “Tool of the Week” was – at BEST – optimistic.

Today I’m talking about pens I just bought on Amazon – with points – because the “marketing” worked.

Everyone knows I am pen dragon. My hoard is writing instruments. I use them. I pet them. I squeeze them. I call them George. IYKYK.

They are my go to when I need a physical outlet for stress or overwhelm or Big Emotions. Mostly because 9 times out of 10 they’re not expensive.

So? What got you this week, Rhonda? Stop with the build up already, what is this? A RECIPE BLOG? Okay, okay. They’re Lanquo Neon gel pens from China. And this particular set of neon pens are called “Dopamine”.

So yeah, these are 0.6mm fine point gel pens that work on both light and dark paper – and I do like using black paper with bright color ink on it when I can. It’s just different. Only one of them did I have to coax into working right out of the case. They’re a little on the narrow side, but they’re still fun and bright and silly. They were maybe $8 for 9 pens.

Now for the reasoning behind the need for Dopamine pens. My dad’s been in the hospital this week. He finally had a surgery he needed – which went great after a long delay getting into surgery. Which led to finding out he needed some education on other health issues that he never got because that doc is a great researcher but less great practitioner. My analogy is the tenured professor that’s awesome with grad students but doesn’t know how to “dumb” it down for freshmen 101 classes.

He should be coming home very soon, but that means the family side of my recent set of decisions has taken the forefront of my world this week – in the hottest week of the year in Texas. My friend, Earl, posted this yesterday on social media…

Also, some folks we’re acquainted with that have a tiny, independent bookstore had it burn down with two restaurants early this week. It made the local news because it was a 4 alarm fire. But the writer and bookseller community is coming together for them.

So, yeah, there’s been a lot. I gave myself permission to not write for about 3 days this week. But thanks to a lot of mental health work – and meds – I was back yesterday and today, and now I have pretty new pens to play with. And if you think these were the only ones I bought…I have some books and things to sell you.

Actually, I have stuff to sell you anyway! Go check out the books page.