My Twin Cousin



Is that even possible? (see picture). Kinda, yeah.

Me and Joy, Joy and me... The oldest memory I have of her is when we visited her family in Toronto. All of our relatives were giving me (being the cute 4 year-old) all of the attention while she (being the skinny, awkward-looking 7 year-old) got none. Joy slammed my fingers in the window that visit. I'll never forget it. Hahaha!

Over the years, we became extremely close; peas in a pod. Throughout grade school, we were pen pals, writing eachother every week about who our latest crush was, what our favorite saying was (mine were always from TV shows, like "Eat my shorts" from the Simpsons, or "OH MY Luuuurrdd" from Perfect Strangers), and what kind of trouble our older sisters (who were as equally as close as Joy & I) got into. Exchanging of pictures was a given, and if there weren't any with our colorfully decorated letters, then we'd cut up pictures of pretty models from magazines, paste them to pieces of paper and write little notes next to them like, "I wish I was her".

When the family reunions would come around, like Thanksgiving, Independence day, Christmas, we would RUN A MUCK. I vaguely remember having a wet toilet paper war in Tito Tony's office one year. And I vividly remember having one in the guest room. She got the rod for that one. We'd stay up late making her cat chase our shadow puppets, watch Ace Ventura and Do The Right Thing repeatedly (now that I'm thinking about it - who in their right mind would let their teens watch Do The Right Thing!?), and spit Thai iced tea out at eachother. We were the silliest. And being the youngin', I wanted to be just like her and (note again the uncanny resemblance) I did a pretty good job at doing just that. We were the silliest.

We got older though. Our parents never wanted us to be together after a while. Why? I dunno. Maybe it was because someone ran away with her to Arizona (hehe). It could have been that when she hit 18, all her old driver's licenses would find their way into my wallet (for what? Long story). Maybe it's because when we'd stay at eachother's houses, they'd wake up in the middle of the night and find my bedroom window wide open, pillows under the blankets, and two of their cars missing (maybe that's it). Who knows. Haha - I'm kidding - I know exactly why. We were the terrors of the Daza family - constantly getting into trouble, enjoying the fun while the fun lasted, but hating the consequences. It's a good thing we grew up.

I don't exactly know why I'm thinking about this. I guess it's because I've been so burdened with acting like a grown-up all the time for so long now that I just miss being silly. And my twin cousin soul sista (hehehe) was someone I could definitely be silly around (even up to now - ask her dog, Pebbles. She tries to imitate my howl). Now we're restricted to our online dates.