I used to hate April 1st. I still do, in some ways.

The problem is that people tend to take “April Fool’s Day” seriously in a way that benefits only the person pulling the prank—not in a way that makes the pranker and the prankee laugh together over the joke, and move on with their day in good spirits.

Mean-spirited pranks often seem “harmless” to the one pulling the prank, because they think their idea is so awesome that if the person being pranked gets upset, they have no sense of humor, or they’re the mean ones, etc..

I’ll be honest, I can’t remember ever being pranked in this way… probably because I made such angry faces at everyone when they mentioned April Fool’s Day, that they feared I might punch them in the nose if they tried anything.

But here’s the kicker: April 1st is the anniversary of the first date I went on with (now) El Husbando (for first-timers to the blog—yes, that’s my husband, it’s just a million times more fun to say it with a terrible Spanish accent… that’s right, a MILLION… I did the math).

Yeah, I wondered that night whether the whole thing was a joke at my expense. Even while on the date, I think I mentioned my hatred of April 1st and threatened bodily harm, should he attempt any stupid jokes only by virtue of the calendar date.

And, aside from giving away the ending to two sci-fi series that I had yet to finish watching (I’m not still bitter, noooo, *ahem*), no pranks were involved and the evening went remarkably well (obviously, I mean, we’re married now… ).

I guess my point is that even crappy days and stupid traditions can be redeemed. If you hate a particular day of the year, it’s never too late to do something FANTASTIC on that day—even if everyone else thinks you’re a little weird for it—because then, from that year forward, it’ll be the anniversary of something happy instead of being a day of anger / disappointment / bitterness.

Yes, that applies to Valentine’s Day, Christmas, birthdays, and whatever other day you just might happen to hate.

Get out there, and make it your own! You never know what random happiness might be around the corner.

In the meantime, anyone have any good April Fool’s Day memories to share?