April fooling

It felt weird to have last week off.  In all my time in Japan, I’ve never used any vacation time to just chill.  Last year, I burned through twelve vacation days to come home, and I rationed five days for the driving test, which left me with very few days to play with, so I used those to travel.  This year I used five days in August to take Mommy around Kyushu, one day in October to pick up Margaret in Osaka, and six days in January to go to Australia.  Even though we had plans to hike, it was so much more laid back and relaxing than catching planes or trains and rushing from one tourist site to another.  So much so that I almost didn’t know what to do with myself!

The first official day of Spring Break was April Fool’s Day.  I told in the previous blog about the trick we played on Ian’s Dad, but what I didn’t tell was who else we got.  Continuing on with the “Melissa’s pregnant” trick, I called Melissa B. and left her a voice mail saying to call me back immediately because I had some BIG NEWS to tell her.  She didn’t get back with me until later that night, and when she did, our conversation went something like this:

Melissa: So what’s up?

Me: Well…..I’m pregnant.

Melissa: Whaaaaaat???  Seriously??  Congratulations!

Me: Yeah.

Melissa: Are you excited?  Have you been to the doctor yet?

Me: Well…..it’s just….. a shock.  I took a pregnancy test this morning, and it came back positive.  I’m going to take another one in the morning, and if that comes back positive, I’ll make an appointment.

Melissa: That’s so crazy!!  Congratulations, you guys!!

Me: Melissa, do you happen to know the date today?

Melissa: (long pause) You bitch!!

AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Next up on the list of hits was Mommy.  I knew that she wouldn’t fall for the ole “Melissa’s pregnant” trick because we’ve already pulled that on her, so I had to get a little creative.  I didn’t sign into Skype like usual that night.  Instead I used Ian’s Skype number and called her land line.  Our conversation was something like this:

Mommy: Hello?

Me: Morning, Mommy.

Mommy: Hi, Melissa!  What are you doing calling me on the land line?

Me: I couldn’t get on my Skype this morning, and actually I was wondering what you were doing today.

Mommy: Christina (my sister) and the kids are coming in, so I was doing last minute cleaning. 

Me: What are you doing in about two hours?  Could you….um….. come pick me up in Nashville?

Mommy: Whaaaaaaaaaaat???

Me: Well, it was going to be a surprise, and Kim was going to pick us up, but she had to go into work early.  We’re in Dallas right now, and our plane leaves in a few minutes.

Mommy: Are you kidding me?

Me: No!  Seriously!  We wanted to surprise you guys.  We found $1200 tickets back in January for my Spring Break week.

Mommy:  Oh, Melissa! I’m so happy!!  I have cold chills!

……yikes.  At that moment, I knew I had to give the joke up or else listen to Mommy sobbing for joy that her baby girl was coming home.  Sometimes April Fool’s Day jokes get a little emotional.  Oops……

I tried the same story with my sister, Christina, who was driving home from Lexington with the kids.  I tried to call her phone, but she didn’t answer, so I left her a voice mail.  I said that I didn’t have wifi, so we couldn’t Face Time, but that she needed to text me back ASAP.  She text me back fairly quickly saying that could talk then, so I called her back  I started the story the same way, and I’m not certain if it’s because she has three young children and is used to being lied to or what, but she believed me for a nanosecond before calling my bluff:

Christina: You’re in Dallas?

Melissa: Yeah, my plane leaves here in a minute.

Christina: If you’re at the Dallas airport, why don’t you have wifi?

Melissa: I don’t know.  I just don’t.

Christina: Shut up.  This is an April Fool’s Joke, isn’t it? You’re not really in Dallas.

*gasp*  She’s good!

I wish we could have pranked more people….. but alas!  With the time difference, it was just a little too difficult.  I was going to write about more of our Spring Break hiking palooza, but this blog has already gotten a little too long for that.  No worries, my dear blog readers!  I have a full afternoon with nothing to do, so I’ll probably spend it writing another blog…..gotta get caught up somehow!