If you know me either in person or just by reading my blog you may have come to the conclusion that I am not the most serious person on the block. Some may call me a bit sarcastic. Others have suggested a career in stand up comedy – those suggestions may have been written in elementary school yearbooks, but I think the point I’m trying to make is that you don’t suddenly become funny. You either are or you aren’t and clearly I’m hilarious…and modest.
I do enjoy playing some good natured jokes on friends and family. During my freshman year in college my roommate, Kristi went to Mardi Gras in New Orleans. I thought she was coming home on Saturday or Sunday and when she failed to show up on Sunday evening, me along with my friend Rachel, who lived across the hall, made missing person posters with Kristi’s picture and plastered them all over campus. Kristi came home early on Monday morning and went immediately to class. She was recognized by numerous people which was how she found out about the posters. I can’t remember if she was mad when she came home with a handful of our posters that she had ripped off the doors, telephone poles and trashcans. I’m going to say she wasn’t because it was not only a good quality joke, but Rachel and I really committed to it. We were out really late putting up the posters and it was a freezing February night in Iowa.
I love pulling off a good prank, but I’ll be the first to admit that I have a terrible time trying to keep a straight face. I have to think of horrible, horrible things to keep from smiling. The alternative is for me to set up my joke, watch the initial reaction from my victim and immediately shout out “Just kidding!” so I can laugh openly.
One person who isn’t fun to pull practical jokes on is my husband. Sure, we have a grand time joking around, but he does not like to be the butt of a joke. He’ll most likely read this and get pissed that I wrote that, but it’s important that he is aware that he is a joke hater. No one likes to look stupid, but I’m always willing to take one for the team if it’s a really good joke. If it’s not, well then you just wasted my time and yours.
Which brings me to April Fool’s Day. I don’t like this day because it makes people who aren’t funny think they are funny for one day. As a truly funny person, I find this incredibly offensive! I am therefore boycotting April Fool’s Day. Or maybe I have been thinking all damn day long about how I could pull a good joke over on my readers and have come up with a big, fat nothin’!
10:02 
LOL Here’s what happened with James today… we were in the car, coming back from dropping off the Shrek DVD at Blockbuster, when all of a sudden he cried “Daddy look! Over there!”
I glanced in the mirror and saw him pointing at something but I couldn’t see what he was pointing at, so I said, thinking it was urgent, “what?!”
He busted out laughing and said “Happy April Fool’s Day!” Bless his 5 year old heart LOL 😀
Here’s a trick I was going to play on my boss… alas, I left the company before April 1st but I would have done it. I was going to get someone from HR in on it and I knew exactly the person I was going to ask. Cindy was always up for a laugh.
So anyway, I was going to go into Cindy’s office and she was going to call Jody, my manager, and tell her we needed to see her urgently.
Here’s the deal – when you come into the US you have to go through the immigration process. Well, legally you’re supposed to. If you do things right (like I did) then you get a work permit and a social security number. The work permit lasts a year while Homeland Security processes your application.
I got my work permit in December 2004. I got my Residency in May 2005 and Homeland Security said I wouldn’t need my work permit any more.
We were going to tell Jody that I’d been misinformed, that my work permit had expired two year previously and I had been working for the company illegally ever since.
I would have loved to have seen her face. Jody was the kind of person who’d go to pieces so fast you’d be hit by the shrapnel. She’d never realise it was an April Fool’s Day joke.
I may have to do it next year…
There are infinite jokes that you can play when you have moved from another country! You are so lucky! I did see another e-card that said “I’m sorry my April Fool’s joke resulted in your deportation.”