When I was an 18-year-old college freshman, I sent my mother an email. “Dear Mom,” it said,

“I don’t know quite how to say this to you, so I’m just going to say it.  Remember Cory, my RA who lives down the hall?  Well, he and I have gotten really close, and a few weeks ago we started dating.  He’s amazing, I think you’re going to really love him, and I’m really happy.  The thing is, the school has a rule against RAs dating people who live in their dorm, and they found out about it, so they’re going to move me to a room in a dorm down the street.

Don’t worry, Anne [my roommate] won’t have to get a new roommate- they’re letting her keep our room as a single for the rest of the year.  And there was some girl who got homesick and dropped out in this other dorm, so there’s a space available over there anyway.  So starting next Friday, my address will be c/o [Other dorm name].”

Then, because I was 18 and it was a Thursday, I went out with Anne to a party, got reasonably drunk, and totally forgot about the email.  I was young, and happy, and that’s what you did on Thursday in college- you went to parties and got drunk!

It was, of course, April 1, 1997, and I thought it was HILARIOUS April Fools’ joke to play on my mother.  I would now like to go back and kick my 18 year old self in the ass because I can only imagine the aneurysm my poor mother must have had when she read that email.  It was juuuuust plausible enough that it probably never occurred to her that it might be fake.

I had originally intended to call her right away after I sent it, but I think I got her voice mail, and I wanted to tell her in person, and then I went to the party and forgot all about it….

The next morning at 8am I was awoken by my mother, trying valiantly to keep her shit together but clearly frantic, saying in a rush “don’t worry, sweetie, we’ll find a way for you to stay in your current dorm, there’s no way they can make you move, and shouldn’t this Cory boy be the one who has to go, if anyone?”

Oops.

(This email hoax turned out to be especially funny when, two months later, I started dating Rocco, a different RA who was even older than Cory (a 5th year senior to my freshman) who I proceeded to date for three and a half years.  Haha!  Prescient!)

I look back on this little episode and am stunned at my own brazenness.  I mean, if you had met my mother, and seen how she can get when she’s frantic, you would realize that it was a seriously ballsy April Fools’.  I remember at the time, Anne couldn’t quite believe I was going to send it, but I was 18 and feeling my oats, so to speak.

Nowadays, I HATE April Fools’ (I LOVED Swistle’s post it idea, and copied it as soon as I saw it, so I think I fell for fewer this year than normal).  But generally, I am pretty gullible anyway, so an entire day devoted to fooling people like me just seems mean.  I went through the entire day yesterday casting suspicious glances in the internet’s general direction (except for first thing yesterday morning, before I realized what day it was, when I totally wished a friend congratulations over facebook on her FAKE APRIL FOOLS PREGNANCY.  NOT NICE.)

Any of you play, or fall for, any April Fools’ jokes this year?  What’s the worst one you’ve ever perpetrated or fallen for in your life?