The Twins

Thanksgiving weekend was delightful. Aside from the 9 hours spent in a car over the course of two days, and the slight disappointment I felt after seeing Twilight, it was quite a lovely weekend.

After returning from a couple days in Michigan with the family, I was put to the test. The friend test. Two nights in a row, actually.

I hope I passed...

Saturday I was invited to attend a house party nearby and meet some of the friends who were in town for the holiday weekend. After a glass of red wine at home this sounded like a great idea - that is until we entered the front door and everyone turned to greet the late arrivals.

Not intimidating at all.

It wasn't that bad, really. Looking back, I probably should have been more intimidated than I was. But I don't usually realize things like that until after the fact - which comes in handy when I embarrass myself and am too oblivious to realize it at the time.

In the course of a couple hours I was introduced to a dozen or so friends for the first time - it was great to put faces to names and to meet all the fantastic people in the SO's life. He's got some amazing friends.

It's weird though, meeting people that you've never even heard of who come up to you and say, "oh, it's so great to finally meet you. I've heard so much about you...."

I hope I'm not super obvious when my response is "thanks, it's great to finally meet you too" when I'm really thinking "who the hell are you and why do you know so much about me..."

The most interesting night, though, was Friday. A fairly relaxed evening in was anticipated, and though it was an evening in, insanity ensued.

Between the Christmas Ale and friends breaking out in song - everything from TI to Boys to Men (yes, seriously) - the evening turned out to be quite the shit show. At one point, people were even sneaking out. Luckily, we were able to capitalize on this moment as well and remove ourselves from the drunken singers - who were not nearly as talented as they thought in that state.

But before all that, I got to meet the other twin.

One of my friends is a twin - something I didn't really realize until just recently. His brother went to a different college, lives in a different town, and it just never came up that his brother was born on the same day. From what I was told they're pretty different, but I managed to make my own assessment after meeting him for the first time.

The physical differences were minimal, both are tall and slender, though one twin was slightly taller than the other. One twin has hair that is a shade lighter than the other. Style, too, seemed similar - but that's difficult to judge after only one encounter with the other twin.

Though they look almost identical, have exactly the same laugh, and for the most part sound the same, from the moment the twin walked in you knew there were big differences.

One twin is much more laid back than the other - his presence is almost calming. He is comfortable sitting quietly, taking it all in, while the other tends to be highly animated and fully engaged in conversation.

There also are significant differences in the way these two interact, and the way they are reacted to, within the core group of friends. It was interesting. Just by observing it was easy to tell how others viewed the twins and the status that each held within this group.

I always thought it would be great to be a twin - you have a constant companion, someone who is just like you to hang out with. But the more twins I meet, the more I realize how it's not like that at all. Being a twin means you need to work just that much harder to make a name for yourself, to stand out and be an individual. And in fact, most twins are quite different from one another. I've even known twins who can't stand each other. It definitely makes for an interesting family dynamic.

So tell me dear readers, what are the twins like that you know?

Anyone else do anything exciting for the holiday weekend?

Cheers!

-A