Fountains of Ink

My sister gave me a fantastically wonderful Chrismas present--a music-writing caligraphy pen. In addition to a normal nib, the pen also has a special 5-pronged nib with which to create staves. I am extremely excited about this, since staff paper is absurdly expensive, and printing paper with rows of underlines, while quite convenient, is decidedly unromantic. A spiffy staff-writing caligraphy pen will be just the thing to get my creative juices flowing.

But I don't have any ink.

I didn't think this would be much of a problem, but it turns out neither JoAnns nor Staples carries bottled ink. When I was in Wal-Mart the other day, I searched high and low among the pens, with no success. I did, however, find an employee--a miraculous occurence in a SoCal Wallies. Even more miraculously, she was quite willing to help me, even though she was presumably headed on break with her blue vest tucked under her arm. I probably shouldn't have bugged her... but seeing an employee is such a rare occurence, you can't afford to quibble about whether or not they're actually on duty.

In any case, this young woman was quite friendly and helpful. Did I need refill ink cartriges for a pen? No, bottled ink, like you'd use for a fountain pen.

She paused for a moment, then said "I'm not sure if we have any in yet, but if we did, they'd be in the garden department."

The garden department? Why in the world would it be in the garden department?

She shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. That's just where we keep them."

Suddenly, recognition flashed across her face. "Oh! You mean for caligraphy!"

She then directed me toward the scrapbooking and crafts section. Which didn't have what I was looking for, either, but at least it made sense.

Looks like I'll have to make a trip out to Michaels.