April Fool's Day

I love April Fool's Day. I come from a family of liars. Not liars in a bad way, not crooks, criminals or tax fraud type liars. But we do like to see what tall tales we can get others to believe. Just for fun.

So April Fool's Day is the perfect holiday. The whole point of the day is to trick your loved ones which is challenging since everyone is on high alert on April 1st:)

My Dad in particular has a reputation for trickery so he's generally "the one to beat" so to speak. But my brother is a trickster as well and harder to fool than the rest of 'em.

A few years back when my brother was first getting his pilot's license he called me (on April 1st, of course) and said he had been in a plane crash. A minor one. He said that mid-air his wing nicked the wing of another student's plane. He said there were no injuries but the damage to the planes was going to be expensive to repair. I can't remember all the details of his story but it was just realistic enough that we all bought it hook, line and sinker. Yeah, there was no plane wreck. We were had.

I waited and waited for the opportunity to get him back. Finally, a couple years ago, my golden opportunity presented itself. My brother is a Marine and his training squadron (battalion? I don't know the right word) made a video for graduation. It was set to music and showed them at work flying, fixing planes etc and playing at parties and other social gatherings. After watching the video including some relatively debaucherous scenes of off-duty Marines, I had an idea. And, on April 1st, I called my brother quite concerned and amused as I told him that in the background of one of the party scenes one of his colleague's "junk" was showing. It wasn't totally in focus, I said, but it was there. My hunch that my brother would find this possibility realistic was correct and he spent some time with the video frame by frame looking for this inappropriately naked Marine. If I remember correctly, his friends did some searching as well. The day I told him 'April Fool's' on that one was a proud day:)

However, my Dad got us all with the biggest April Fool's Day "non"-prank. My Dad is super, super healthy. He's an athlete, he eats well, exercises competitively. Probably the healthiest member of my family (and we're a healthy bunch). So when my Mom called saying he had a heart attack and that maybe I should come out to Rockford, I was floored. A heart attack? Seriously? This is a guy who had blood clots in his lungs for weeks and his only symptom was "I get a little short of breath around mile 30 of my bike rides". But, shit happens, so I quickly packed my bags. But as my husband and I left the apartment, I turned to him and said "Oh my god, could this be an April Fool's joke? Do I need to call Mom and ask?" That's the kind of trickster family we are - my Dad has a heart attack (he's totally fine and as competitive as ever) - and I question whether it's an April Fool's joke. Hey, it was April 1st! My Dad, the ultimate tall tale teller actually had a heart attack on April 1st! And his daughter wasn't sure if she should believe him. Hilarious. Isn't there a parable about this? Something about a boy and a wolf?? ;)

So, last Friday, I really wanted to come up with something for April Fool's. Mostly I wanted to get my dad, brother and mom. I thought long and hard trying to come up with something believable and I decided to use facebook. I ended up posting this:





with the caption:

"Umm....this is going to look awesome at my friend's wedding this weekend. So much for my 'daily mile' quest...."

(In case you missed it, I recently posted about my attempt to run at least 1 mile every day this year.)

The joke was a success by my April Fool's Day yardstick. I tricked my dad and my Grandma Nelson as well as some more trusting friends and family members. I hope the un-intentional victims of my joke find it funny and aren't mad at me. I apologize if you aren't a fan of practical jokes (K, T, B, you know who you are) and/or were really upset by my fake stress fracture. I don't apologize that my wonderful Grandma Nelson was tricked because, after all, she produced my Dad so he must have gotten some of his deceptive technique from her. Best of all, though, I got my Dad. I got him good. He called on Saturday inquiring about my foot, asking how it happened, how long I'd have my foot in the boot, my recovery plans. Jackpot! Jackpot! Jackpot!! And he was so mad at himself for falling for it when I reminded him which day I posted the picture:)

Ah, April Fool's. Such a great, under-appreciated holiday:)