Vent: My entire weekly spread got wrecked by a single coffee spill

Alice Chen · 2026-03-31T15:15:07.922433+00:00

I was setting up my journal at the kitchen table yesterday morning, my favorite pen in hand. I had just finished drawing the lines for my habit tracker when my elbow knocked over a full mug. Brown coffee went EVERYWHERE, soaking two whole pages. I tried to blot it fast, but the ink from my pen bled and smeared all over the place. Now my clean layout is a blurry, stained mess for the next seven days. I'm so annoyed I almost just ripped the pages out. Has anyone else salvaged a major spill, or do you just start over on the next page?

the_wesley6mo ago

Honestly my clumsiness could be a professional hazard.

8

charles_coleman5mo ago

Figure out what kind of pen you were using first. Some waterproof ink holds up way better than cheap ballpoint stuff even when it gets soaked. Did you catch whether the smearing came from the coffee or just your frantic blotting?

3

elliotr396mo ago

Ever try to get coffee out of a paper grocery receipt? Left one on my dashboard once. Sun baked it, coffee soaked it. Turned into this weird crispy brown blob. Couldn't read a single price. Just a sticky mess. Had to argue with the return desk for twenty minutes.

2