on owning a typewriter

as of 25 and a half hours ago, i possess a Royal 240 typewriter. she is beautiful, old-school but not too old, and fully functional, and if owning her makes me a hipster, i don't really care.

i bought the sweet piece of machinery online all the way back in June, but was only able to arrange to pick it up from my sweet friend Hannah (who runs the online store The Union, where she featured it) yesterday. as a side note, we should make paying for things which we only receive much later a more common occurrence. instant gratification is overrated. it is so lovely to receive a thing for which you paid when you had money, at a time when you don't have as much money! it is like a gift from my past self to my present self. thanks, past self! you are the business. moving on.

since getting home and having my mom teach me how to use the machine (she faced a combination of questions on my part which ranged from "what does this button do?" to "what's the lever for?" to "remind me again how to..." to "huh?"), i've spent a solid amount of time tick-tacking away on it, typing out all of my favourite poems. (note: tomorrow is my birthday. if you would like to buy me a present but you don't know what to get me, a ream of paper would be lovely.) good golly, it's so much fun! while typing yesterday and today, however, i came to a few conclusions, so you may find below my list of pros and cons regarding using a typewriter. (with annotations ;) )

1. (she writes on her online blog.)
2. ...or tell the time. or take a selfie. i am clearly addicted to the internet and to multifunctionality of recent technology. (this is more a poor reflection on me than on the typewriter... hmmm.)
3. because of this, you will want to type out old-timey poetry and long quotes from books that you love, and you will suddenly feel inspired to write long letters to all the people you love the best.
4. i tell myself that this counts as weightlifting, though, so it's not all bad.
5. this is what i tell myself, anyway, after making at least one error in pretty much everything i've typed so far.
6. they are inescapable. you will have to do some crossing out, or retype the entire page. prepare yourself.
7. it does not need to be plugged in! huzzah!
8. but seriously, this happens a lot less frequently than my laptop's battery dies.
9. ha. suck it, Word!
10. this means typing late at night while everyone is asleep is a bad idea (unless your intention is to wake everyone in the immediate vicinity, in which case, go right on ahead).

all in all, i have fallen in love and am super happy with my purchase. here is a shot of my typewriter from above, as well as a lovely long quote i typed out by one of my favourite authors, Anne Lamott:

how great is that? as much as i love motivation and working hard (see my last post for more on this, ha), it's also so important to love who and what and where we are now - and to have the courage to change these things if we don't love them. living in fear or anxiety is just so time-consuming. i love my typewriter for giving me clear examples of how imperfection can be beautiful and acceptable and not the end of the world ;)