stationeryphillic

I am what you may call a stationeryphillic (I know that no such word exists, ;) my editor shows me the red). I have an unnatural attraction for anything that can be termed (or even remotely called) stationery, from the smell of an old textbook to the wood shavings of a newly bought pencil, I love it all.
Most people ask me (obviously it is a visible madness) as to when I caught on to the addiction, and well I say :

For 3 generations now we have been loving, collecting and truthfully obsessing over our stationery, it just runs in the family! My grandfather loved it, so does my uncle and now me(two other cousins have followed suit, both younger!).

My first hints of fondness for stationery showed when I began using colors. Paper and crayons was a lethal combination. I would sit with them for hours together, coloring every thing I could lay my tiny hands on, so much that at the end of the day I would be crying with a headache(I am a migraine patient!) but the very next day (despite my mom's consistent warning) I would be back to where I had left off the previous day. My fondness only amplified as I grew older and some very influential people in my life only made the penchant grow.
My grandfather (a strong influence on my personality) was my first inspiration. He had this zipper bag full of pens, there were parkers, pilots, ball points, and the then famous hero pen which he would specifically ask my mom to bring from Madras, he also gave me my first parker pen. He had a fancy for staplers, gem clips, adhesive and the like, and would want to have them in plenty all around him, always. He was an author, mind you. His pens (pena, as he would call it, I just loved/love/will love everything about him!!) were his favourites and he taught me to treat them the same way as he did, that was when in school.
I moved to college and there I had, influence no. 2, my uncle. He being my grandfather's son, also had a similar looking zipper bag. With him there was a difference. He dint just house his pens, there were pencils in plenty, well sharpened, and erasers, ofcourse a pencil sharpener, a scale, some glue, some colored pens, I'm not drifting it was all there(Not that my grand dad did not have those other things, only they were scattered). I was supremely attracted to that pouch and though I always had pens I would want just one more from there. Every morning, I used to see my uncle sharpen those pencils before he left for work despite the fact that his secretary could fish out a well sharpened pencil when asked for. This stationeryphillic not only loves his stationery he is super methodical too. I have tried being that methodical many times but (for lazy people like me) it never worked.
And so, because of all the impact, I, Manasa, soon joined the club of the zipper pouch-ers. I had/ have my own pouch (a cuter girlie version!) with dozens of pens, ranging from fountain tips to ball points, parkers included, innumerable pencils from regular wood pencils to pen-pencils, color sketch-pens, hi-liters, erasers of different shapes and what not. I also have a collection of notebooks that I have picked up over the years. I don't let anybody borrow my stationery, because I strongly feel "Stationery lent is stationery lost!".
I obsess over my stationery and to this day, go bonkers the moment I see nice looking notebooks, pens, pencils, colors or crayons. At the moment, I am a homemaker(a temporary status), not desperately in need of stationery but well, yesterday when I walked into walmart, and found a nice notebook set aside for clearance sale, I simply had to have it.
And now you know, my friend, why I call myself a stationeryphillic. I am proud to be one.