I consider myself someone who is comfortable with conflict. Not that I go and pick fights or arguments, but I don't necessarily shy away from such opportunities. Although, there is one specific situation that I almost always try to avoid: explaining to someone that the pen they are putting in their pocket belongs to me. I say "almost always" because I have on occasion pointed this out (I've learned my lesson). The one instance in mind turned into a much longer argument than necessary. One summer in college, I worked at Walmart as a cashier (expect more on this later). On this particular day a middle aged woman decided to write a check for her items so I lent her my pen. Not to get off topic, but if you are still writing checks in the 21st century, you should probably have at least one pen handy. Now leading up to this, and even while she was filling everything out, we had a pretty great conversation and were enjoying each other's company. After handing her the receipt, she said goodbye and started to push her cart away. Realizing she still had my pen, I said something to the effect of, "oh by the way, could I have my pen back?"

"Um...this is my pen."

"Actually ma'am, I lent you that pen to write your check about 3 minutes ago."

"Well this is a Zebra* pen. I only use Zebra pens."

"That may be the case ma'am, but this particular Zebra pen is mine."

After huffing and puffing she finally handed me my pen and scoffed, walking away. This brings up the question at hand: is it worth sacrificing a pen to maintain a friendship? These friendships usually last no more than 5 minutes, so they're quite possibly meaningless, but one could argue those encounters are not. I am a firm believer that short conversations can largely impact someone's day, which in turn affects their week, and so on and so on. That being said, the pens that I carry around with me daily aren't necessarily cheap. They're not necessarily expensive either. It's just annoying when I have to replace one for reasons other than it simply ran out of ink. I have tossed around the idea of carrying around a "dummy" pen or something cheap enough to were if someone were to steal it, I would be less irritated. The problem is that shit adds up, and I'm not interested in carrying more than two pens in my pocket at a time (and yes, I carry two pens with me at all times). Recently, I've resorted to much more passive aggressive tactics. The pens that I currently use have a detachable cap, which I remove and keep when lending one out to someone. This gives said borrower a reminder. "Where's the cap? Oh wait, this isn't my pen. Here you are kind fellow. The use of your writing utensil was much appreciated," as he tips his hat to me. Pen retrieval success. For those borrowers who skip this brain process, prepare to have a pocket or purse full of ink. Pen retrieval failure, but retaliation success.

tl;dr I'm insane and have very strong opinions about pens.

*I no longer use Zebra pens. Been quite fond of Sharpie pens for the past couple years.