If you’ve kept up with this season of ‘Flip or Flop Atlanta,’ you might have noticed husband-and-wife duo Ken and Anita Corsini slip in a mention or two about Anita’s former career as a math teacher. While her school days are now over, her "proud nerd" love of school supplies is going...strong, let’s say. It’s rather strong.

One love is especially notable—but we’ll let Anita and Ken tell you about that.

“So, Anita...she has a pen fetish,” Ken reported. “I wouldn’t even call it a collection, it’s more of a fetish. She used to sleep with her pens at night ... in bags.” Hmm. 

“No, my purses. I didn’t sleep with pens at night!” Anita protested. She also clarified that said purse and pen collections have dated back to childhood.

“My dad tucked me in one night, and what was all around me, was I had gotten a purse, which I loved. I was like 5,” Anita said. “But my purse is [now] full of pens, for the record.”

Can you blame her? As scholar Petrarch put it, “There is no lighter burden, nor more agreeable, than a pen.” Ken agreed: “It’s OK. They’re not expensive. If you’re going to collect anything, collect pens, man. They’re like a buck fifty. I can handle that.”

One would then assume that giving Anita gifts is a snap, but Ken begged to differ.

“[E]very Christmas, I would try to find the newest pen model and be like, I’m going to surprise her with this new make and model of pen," he said. "Inevitably, Christmas morning would come around, she’d look at it and [say], ‘Ah, yeah, I’ve got it. I [already] got this one.’ She was never surprised!”

Of course, pen provenance aside, Anita’s always going to need a way to tote them around. No surprise: “She also has a purse collection,” Ken said. “Purse collection, pen collection.” Christmas is saved! 

Do you, Anita. Do you.  

For the latest on Anita’s pen count—and the more than 700 homes she and Ken have rehabbed—tune in Thursdays nights for Flip or Flop Atlanta at 9|8c.