[ april fool ]

sooooooo... i was dating a guy when i was in college who had planned a year long trip to australia before i'd met him... honestly it was BEFORE i met him!!!

there was this tv guide magazine in the uk, not sure if it's still around & he would religiously do the competition crossword. the prizes ranged from money, trips & furniture. well... me being the jokester that i was forged a winning letter announcing that he'd won a wonderful trip on the orient express! this was for himself & a guest, non-transferable & would take place when he'd already left for australia... i think i also put something about with his permission a film crew would like to film some of the trip for future publicity. oh how i giggled to myself when i dropped it in the post box.

well...he was staying in a bed-sit at his mom's house, he'd given up his apartment as he was about to go away for a year... i turn up around lunchtime of april 1st to a family meeting... (he was one of 6 children). i'm thinking what the heck is going on... !!my heart plummets when i realize it's over this letter... i had actually forgotten about it & certainly thought he would see straight through it!!!

he sees me,  takes me to a quiet room starts this whole monologue about how sorry he was because i would have been his guest on this amazing trip of a lifetime & how he'd been on the phone all morning with one of his brothers trying to sort something out, maybe he could get away with saying that his legal name was different....(so his brother could go)  he'd tried to change his airline ticket to australia (but thankfully wasn't able to...) he went on & on & on & on... & the more time that passed the more i didn't know how to break it to him that it was a joke...

his mom had got a bit worked up about it too & she was in a very fragile state ~ this definitely was not helping matters...

the whole thing completely changed from being this, what i thought, very funny prank to a nightmare... & still i kept quiet!! i started feeling slightly sick & promising myself i will never do anything like this again!!

finally...i couldn't take it anymore... i just blurted out... how sorry i was, it was meant to be a joke & not cause all this anguish to so many people! i begged forgiveness & swore my prankster days were over!

BUT the crazy thing was... he didn't believe me!! kept telling me to stop joking & being silly, apparently i wasn't helping the situation... oh man this was going rapidly from bad to worse!!! but it WAS me ~ believe me for goodness sake...

i had to go on & on for ages to convince him... & recite the letter word for word... needless to say it didn't go down very well with anyone... people were just staring at me with this semi angry semi pitiful look...

so of course i didn't joke like that again... until... oh the next year!! same boyfriend!! UNBELIEVABLE!!  before i moved to america i used to give blood regularly (the usa won't take foreigners blood so i've had to stop now). i got my boyfriend to come along & he got into it too ~ he had a rare blood group.

again i wrote a letter to him, from the local hospital, saying that their stocks were extremely low on that particular rare blood group & that they would appreciate it if he could come in & give some ~ i gave a time, ward name etc etc...

i remember returning home just as he's leaving the house... when i inquired where he was going he told me to give blood!! ARHHHHH!!!

needless to say... we're not together anymore & that i have grown up (just a bit) & do not perform these acts of merriment!

&... if he ever reads this... i am really sorry!