Sentimentality and Fat Elvis

I just took a long, hot bath. I listened to some Skinny Love, and read through a fairly weighty stack of old cards that I've kept and collected over the years. This stack was mostly from the past few birthdays and graduation.
If there was ever an automatic ego boost, this is the way to get it.
Seriously.
People tell you things in grad cards that they will never, ever tell you in real life.
I'm not saying this to be rude, or pessimistic. It's just true.

You learn a lot about yourself from what people write in your graduation cards.
Sometimes you learn that you've touched people's lives you don't even hardly know.
Sometimes you learn that your parents' friends consider you their friend too, now that you've entered into adulthood.
Sometimes you learn these new friendships with older adults will bless your life immensely.
Sometimes you learn that your grandmother loves you deeply.
Sometimes you learn who really cares, and who's really just jotting their name on the card because they have to.
It's an intensely emotional process, reading and re-reading Graduation cards. You catch things the second and third time around that you didn't quite see before.

I think this is the first time I actually comprehended the sentence "You mean the world to me" that my grandmother placed beneath the acrostic poem she wrote of my name.
Sometimes you learn things are a little too good to be true, but that's okay. It's nice to hear them anyways.

A few weeks ago, I found this Beanie Baby that my friend brought back for me from her first trip to Las Vegas last summer. It's a red bear with an Elvis hairdo, holding a plastic 'autographed' guitar. Oh, and it's wearing white sunglasses.
I love it, because without even trying, the general pudginess of the bear makes it look more like Fat Elvis than Thin Elvis. Fat Elvis is fun to say out loud. Fat Elvis. Fat Elvis. Fat Elvis. It's even fun to type.

Have you ever googled images of Fat Elvis?
... Don't.

Thinking about Fat Elvis makes me wonder which Elvis people generally prefer.

Fat Elvis or Thin Elvis?

Marilyn Monroe or Norma Jean?

Paul McCartney Solo or Wings?


Electric or acoustic?

paper or plastic?


Diet or sugar-free?


Zodiac or Kerouac?


Fins or beaks?

Taste or sight?

Inside or out?

Love or Money?






I wonder which Elvis the real Elvis would choose?









My loves,
My doves,
My eggs