Question on SwingUtilities.invokeLater

Question

The program I have included is attempting to "simulate" opening and loading a file into memory.
Run the program, select File and then select Open. You will notice that the File menu does not disappear for 3 seconds (i.e. until the file has been completely read).
I was hoping it was possible to close the File menu while the file is being read. While reading through various documentation on the invokeLater() method I found the following:
"Both invokeLater() and invokeAndWait() wait until all pending AWT events finish before they execute"
Therefore by adding an invokeLater() method I was hoping to accomplish the following series of events:
1) click on Open menuItem
2) invoke OpenAction
3) do the "repaint" (which would cause the file menu to disappear)
4) finish the OpenAction
5) do the long running task
Hopefully you understand what I am trying to accomplish and can provide some guidance. Here is the sample program:
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
public class TestInvokeLater extends JFrame
     JFrame frame;
     JMenuBar menuBar;
     JMenu menu;
     JMenuItem menuItem;
     public TestInvokeLater()
          frame = this;
          setDefaultCloseOperation( EXIT_ON_CLOSE );
          menuBar = new JMenuBar();
          menu = new JMenu("File");
          menuBar.add(menu);
          menuItem = new JMenuItem( new OpenAction() );
          menu.add(menuItem);
          setJMenuBar( menuBar );
          JPanel panel = new JPanel();
          panel.setPreferredSize( new Dimension( 100, 100 ) );
          setContentPane( panel );
     class OpenAction extends AbstractAction
          public OpenAction()
               putValue( Action.NAME, "Open" );
          public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e)
          repaint();
     SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable()
     public void run()
          try
               Thread.sleep(3000); // simulate log running task
          catch (Exception e) {}
     public static void main(String[] args)
          JFrame frame = new TestInvokeLater();
          frame.pack();
          frame.show();
}

Answer 1

Thanks for the input, but I still have some confusion -
"invokeLater() simply appends the thread to the end of the dispatch queue, this happens before the event code to hide the file menu gets queued"
This is the part that confuses me. If I understand event driven programming correctly then the code for the MenuItemClicked must complete execution before the next event in the queue can be executed.
If we assume the code for MenuItemClicked is something like:
1) fireActionEvent
2) fireCloseMenuEvent
When MenuItemClicked is finished executing the next event in the queue is the ActionEvent which invokes my ActionPerformed code:
1) I use the Swing invokeLater() method (which means it should be queued "after" the fireCloseMenuEvent
Does this make any sense?