April Fooled!

I did a number of April Fool's jokes on family members as well as people in the community. My family knows this is one of my favorite holidays of the year, and that I obsess about tricking people on April 1.

So, they nailed me good this year.

My younger brother, Paul, who lives in St. Joe, in northwest Missouri, had told me that he and his wife and kids were going to Chicago this weekend to visit my parents and my older brother and his family. Paul and I were plotting on the phone yesterday on how to pull an April Fool's joke on my parents. We were going to tell my parents that Paul's car had broken down, they had forgotten their cell phones, and that they had remembered my phone number and called me to ask me to call my parents and let them know that Paul and his family would be a day late. So, I unwittingly went along with this. Paul and I also spent a while on the phone, regaling each other with tricks we had already pulled on people that day. Paul asked whether my family had gotten me yet. No, I said, but I suspected that they might be up to something.

Then, late last night while on my way home from chorus rehearsal, I called Deb, who suggested that she order some delivery pizza to celebrate the end of our big April Fool's Day. I agreed. A few minutes after I got home, the doorbell rings, and a kid who looks like he's about 13 is standing at the door holding three boxes of Imo's Pizza. Youngest pizza delivery guy I'd ever seen, thought I. And then my brother and his wife come walking up the steps to the house.

I'd been scammed! My brother Paul was NOT on his way to Chicago. The kid at the door was my 11-year-old nephew, and my brother and his family had actually come to St. Louis to surprise ME on April Fool's Day.

My wife and kids laughed and laughed at my expense, because they had been in on this secret for several days. And every time I had been talking about getting them or somebody else with an April Fool's trick, they knew I was in the process of getting totally tricked.

All I can say is that I'm an amateur dealing with pros.

Whew.