What's in a Name?

Lately I have begun to wonder what people think of my online name. I have started to wonder if anyone reading my posts (Larry this if for you, all one of you;) reads "melonface" and imagines a person with a round, melon-like face. So, I will set you all strait (all one of you).

Back in high school, I used to walk to school with a friend every morning. Every day, we had to pass a grove of tall cottonwood trees, and in mid-spring/summer, when the cotton was floating in the air, it used to look like snow. I highly enjoyed this time of year, but my friend was extremely allergic to the cotton, so her eyes used to get all puffy, swollen and itchy. Goodnaturedly (at least I thought so), I used to poke fun at her allergic reatctions.

Fast forward several years. It was a hot, late summer day and I had a rugby game. Add together the heat, an irritating sun screen, and small abrasions from the gravel on my face, and post-game my face felt a little bothered, but it didn't concern me too much. The next morning, however, when I woke up my face felt weird- kind of squashed and mushy. I walked into the bathroom, and took one look at myself. My face had swollen up like a melon! My eyelids were droopy, and my cheeks were fat, like a chipmunk.

Later that day, when I had to go pick up some lotion for my melon face, as luck would have it the very friend who's allergies used to bring me hours of enjoyment was the person to ring through my purchases. She had a good laugh (rightly so). Karma: it comes back to bite you in the ass.

So, from then on whenever I try to find a user name at a website, and my initials are already taken, I use the name "melonface." After all, who else would use such a weird screen name?