what are the normal setting for the pen tool for psp9?
i cant seem to get it right

You can just go to
PRESETS.AND CLICK THE ARROW.And it should make all your settings to default.

yep i did that..thanks =].. now i have another question.. why is the color beneath the foreground color always the color inside the drawing i make? do i always have to change that color to my background color? i hope that made sense

Yeah..you do..its sort of weird..thats the default settings.