Well, it's been awhile, but I think I'm back in the forum to stay. After my grandma died last fall, I went into hermit mode and spent a lot of time just trying to deal with everyday life. At the time, I was doing broad pen work (italic) and it was starting to stress me out. Being so tense and sad was having an effect on how well I could make the letterforms and that was making me more tense and upset and it just kept getting worse and worse until I just stopped doing calligraphy altogether.
When I finally picked up a pen again, it was an oblique and I was using a pointed nib. I hadn't wanted to start pointed pen work until I felt really good with my italic, but I needed a change. I also didn't want to do anything that was too rigid because I didn't want to get myself back in the same predicament I had with italic. So, worked on improving my own cursive script, written at a 55 degree slant with shading on the downstrokes. Serendipitously, I ended up with something approximating the running hand from Bickham's The Universal Penman.
I've finally gotten back to italic, too. My husband's cousin's daughter graduated high school a few weeks back and I volunteered to address the envelopes for her graduation announcements. They turned out fairly well, actually, and it felt good to have that calligraphy victory.
So, I think I'm back to stay. I've missed the forum and talking to calligraphy friends.