Being A Twin - Part 2

A few years ago, when I was visiting Jen & Dave, Jen had a special "Twin Day" in her pre-school class. We dressed alike and the kids got to meet me for the first time. Hind sight, we could have dressed a bit different so not to traumatize the kids that they were seeing double. After Jen was finished teaching for the day, we were invited to one of the 2nd grade classes to be introduced and then interviewed by the teacher and the kids. Just like we were someone special like a fireman or doctor. They learned that we were fraternal twins and not identical. The teacher asked what the kids knew about twins.

Can you guess who is who?

The most common answer was twins looked and talked alike. One little boy asked why I was so much taller than Jen and I replied that it was because of the shoes I was wearing. A look of disbelief crossed his face. So to prove my point, I slipped them off as Jen and I stood back to back. As my heals hit the floor, proving we were the same height, a gasp and full chorus of "Ohhh!" went across the room. It was stinkin hilarious!

One of the kids also pointed out that twins have the same birthday. Growing up, sharing the same birthday, has been my favorite aspect of being a twin. My mom was sure to make birthdays very fair, each of us receiving the same amount of gifts. She even made sure to switch, from year to year, whose name was listed first on the birthday cake. We had a twin tradition. If we received a gift that was the same or similar, my mom would have us sit back to back while we opened the gift. This way, the surprise wasn't ruined if the other opened it first. When we were older and no longer lived in the same house, we made it a point to call each other and open gifts while talking on the phone.

Isn't Debs cute?

I always loved going to school on my birthday but I remember a year we left school early in order for my mom to take us to the Mrs. Grossman's Sticker Extravaganza. We lived in the Bay area and got to go to the annual event, meet Mrs. Grossman, and pick out hundreds of stickers. We were thirteen and thought it was pretty cool! Another favorite birthday memory from school was during our senior year. Jen and I had our first period classes next door to one another. I had History, Jen took English. The classes shared a connected door and my class was interrupted when we over-heard, through the door, Jen's class singing her "Happy Birthday". Well, that caused an out right competition of whose class could be the loudest at singing "Happy Birthday" before the connecting door swung open and laughter filled both rooms.

Our Last Day of High School

One of my favorite birthdays was just a couple of years ago. Jen and I celebrated our 28th, our first birthday together in 10 years. Josh and Dave bought us matching little black dresses, took us out to a fancy Italian dinner, and then out to see the newest Pride & Prejudice. I remember the movie’s opening scene starts with some classical music and some girly dialog and laughter. The music quieted down enough just as Dave exclaimed, “What The!?!” Which means, “What did I get myself into?” & “I can tell there are not going to be any swords in this movie.” It was a perfect date night where the guys sacrificed two hours for their wives’ sake.