Twin Sightings

In case you might not know it, I am an identical twin. My twin is 7 minutes older than me and looks a lot like me. I look a lot like her. Sometimes I look at myself in the mirror and feel like I am her. That sounds weird but if you are a twin, you will know what I mean. It's like looking in a mirror.

As we grow older .. and older, we are starting to look more and more alike, if that is even possible. We seem to be morphing into one. We sound alike to the point that our children don't always know who they are talking to on the phone.

You can't imagine what people say to us when we are out and about. These are people who don't know us, just random strangers. We joke about how many twin comments we will get in a day. We joke that we are freaks. People are used to seeing baby or toddler twins, but old lady twins? Twin freaks, we are becoming twin freaks.

I am not kidding, we get asked these questions daily:

Are you sisters? Then they ask, are you twins? (Ah, yes and yes. Just cut to the chase and say twins right off the bat. It's like waiting for the next shoe to drop.We know that is going to be the next question.)

OMG, I am seeing double. Are you guys twins? (Again, the answer is a yes.)

Didn't I just wait on you? (When I point to the other twin, they say, are you twins?)

Do you both have the same birthday? (Ah, yes we do.)

Do you dress alike? (Hello, we are adults and not freaks. Unfortunately we like the same things so occasionally we will both show up in the same thing and one of has to change which is very irritating for the one who has to give in.)

Did you dress alike when you were kids?  (Mother loved to dress us alike. So, yes. Sometimes, she tried really hard to treat as individuals and dressed us in the same thing but a different color. )

Do your kids have twins? (No, and they seem glad about that, much to our disappointment.)

Aren't you both cute! (That one makes us feel pubescent. What is so cute about 62 year old twins?)

Hey, are you guys twins? (This is yelled at us after they have passed by us, almost like an after thought. We can see it in their facial expressions as they come towards us, but I guess they feel safer to holler after they pass by.)

Do you like being twins? (Well, like I have a choice.)

When I see a look of recognition and then a look of confusion because I don't acknowledge someone, I just say, I'm the other one, or I am ......., or I am not who you think I am. Sometimes, I just pretend to be her. She never pretends to be me. I wonder why?

My twin says my nose is bigger than hers and of course I say her nose is bigger. I say my feet are better looking than hers and they are. I am taller than her and yet I am younger than her. She says that is only because I pushed her out first.Our mother put bracelets on us as babies so she could tell us apart. We sometimes wonder if our names are mixed up and I am really her and she is really me.

Her children are like my children and my son is like her son. We share our children and grandchildren. Our children are more like siblings instead of cousins. It is a wonderful advantage of being a twin.  We live together and joke that we get along better with each other than we ever did with those ex-husbands of ours.

When I lived out on on the East Coast, we used to send each other the same cards. One Christmas we sent each other the exact same sweater only in different colors.  We sent the exact same flower arrangement to our brother when he and his wife had their first baby. We say words at the exact same time. I tell her something and she says she was just thinking about the same thing. We have hit two separate light switches in the house at opposite sides at the same time.  Ok, maybe a little freaky, but we are not freaks, we are just twins.

We are the same and yet we are different. She is a worrier and I am not. She is neat and I am messy. She likes to cook, I like to eat out. I love the sun and the water, she is content to sit in the shade. I like people around, she likes the solitude. She likes to play her clarinet, I like to paint. She was a studious kid, I was into fun. We both love to read, love our Kindles, movies, road trips and we love our family and friends. We are the same but we are different in a same sort of way.

I could go on and on. I am glad I have a twin sister.We are very close. We are each other's best friend. I can't imagine being a single person. We joke that if we both have to go to a nursing home, we go together. We better get a double room where we will lay in twin beds facing each other, talking in our own language. We hope if we get dementia, we will still know each other.

So, if you think you see me and I am out and about alone, you might not be seeing me at all. It might be the other one. Just holler out - Which twin are you? We are used to it.