I love April Fool’s day. It’s a day that pranks, stories and jokes can occur, and everyone enjoys being involved. The keys to pulling off an April Fool’s joke are know the prank ahead of time, research, believability, playing into your own limits, practice, and knowing current situations. Here’s a breakdown of this year’s prank: Knowing the prank: Driving to work this morning I decided to tell a story about how I’ll be leaving the credit union soon because Angelina has accepted a job out of state. We’ll be leaving after she graduates next month. What’s her new job? The “Teenage Therapist” at Hartford County Psychiatric Hospital about twenty to thirty minutes away from my family in Connecticut. Research: There is no such place called “Hartford County Psychiatric Hospital” that I could find. (Not much research required for this prank) Believability: Angelina is starting to look for a job, and is graduating in about a month. So that’s easy to believe. Choosing the spot to say we’re moving to had to be a place that made sense. I chose Connecticut because my co-workers know that I have family up there, and know that I like to talk about them. There had also been talk about Angelina going to grad school out of state a few years ago, so it is known that we are willing to move if the opportunity is better somewhere else. Playing into your own limits: I can’t tell an April Fool’s story with a straight face to save my life. Knowing this, I chose to make up an exciting story so I could be smiling through the whole thing without anybody suspecting a thing. Trust me; I was on the verge of busting out laughing the whole time I was telling my co-workers. Practice: I was going to tell the story to my department all at once in our staff meeting today. Before the meeting I told a select few people outside of my department to test if it was even a good prank, and to make sure I could keep the story straight. I tweaked the story a little each time until it sounded just right. Three of the four people believed me, and they all said that it would be a good prank. Current situation: Another auditor is being hired to partner with me. I thought it would be fun to play off the fact that this is a good time to leave because applications have been turned in for the same position as mine. Pulling off the prank: I had planned the whole morning to telling this story at our biweekly department meeting so I only had to tell it once, and make sure no one overheard the “April Fool’s” part too early. When I walked into the meeting room and not only saw all my co-workers and supervisor, but my manager was there also! This was perfect! When my supervisor started the meeting, I politely asked if I could make a quick exciting announcement. She said okay, and I started my story, HUGE smile on my face. Here’s what I remember of how it went. “Angelina has accepted a job at Hartford County Psychiatric Hospital. It is about 20 minutes from my family in Connecticut, and she starts right after she graduates next month!” Everybody responded with surprised/confused, but happy “Congratulations!” My manager then questions, “So, is this your notice?” Trying not to answer the question, I tried to explain my excitement, “This is so awesome because we were starting to get nervous about where she was going to work this summer!” My manager now asks. “When does she graduate?” Time to let everyone know it’s my April Fool’s day prank, “She graduates around April Fools.” I know it was kind of a corny prank, but I got a kick out of it. During reports time at work, a good laugh helps get me through the day. Especially if it’s a Friday. | 
I hope that it lasts through the summer. I have had a hard time keeping grass through the hot, dry summers. The seed that I bought this time seems like it works well though, so I know what to get next time. Hopefully I'll have a healthy looking lawn in the next couple of years.
