huge melon

Currently listening to Neil Young - On the Beach

The wife and I went shopping for my new sunglasses at the Mall of America last night. Much like my previous experiences choosing eyewear of any kind, this was a depressing experience. I can never get exactly what I want because I have a huge head. So, my search for sunglasses ultimately came down to finding something, anything that would fit my head. I tried on all sorts of different sunglasses I never would have considered otherwise, including models by Prada. Ultimately, I selected these:

I bought them in the Oakley store in the mall. I kid you not, I think I found two pairs of sunglasses out of the dozens I tried that actually fit OK...and this was at two different stores, too. I didn't bother to check out how much the pair I selected were before I paid for them, so I was shocked to discover the bill for the whole affair (sunglasses + hard case) was $367. Oops. I had hoped to spend no more than half that, but when you've got a huge melon, sometimes you have to take what you can get. They're nice, but certainly would not have been my first choice under other circumstances.

The only time my large head has come in handy is when I use it for what has come to be known as the "melon test" at work. I used to manage inventory purchasing for all headphones, and currently have category management responsibilities for computer headsets. Most of this stuff is manufactured in Asia, and those guys have fairly small heads. So, I try on everything that comes our way, and if it doesn't fit my head, then we usually reject it. We got a sample of new Bluetooth headphones from Taiwan a few weeks ago, and they broke in half when I tried to put them on. Rejected. Kind of embarrassing, but somebody's got to do it. Sort of.