6 Snippets About Twins

1. When I was first introduced to the twins, I realized that I already knew them. I sat right next to Christian in our World Religions class for a week before I knew that these were the very Palmers that Grace had been spending so much time with lately. Grace said, "This is Mariko." I said, "Yeah, I know you guys. We have that class together." Christian looked at me and said, "Which class?"
He swears that that didn't happen. It did.

2. Christian and Jesse talked me into my first point jump. They also talked me into the first time I went to boilers, and also Pupas. I think that this should tell you enough about how well the twins judge danger and inexperienced ocean people. The point jump turned out to be pretty safe, at least. I guess the others I lived through, which is what they might point out.

3. The boys were very good about coming to my house when I lived on the point. We ate a lot of Haagen Daz, and Christian was the designated deep fry guy. Jesse tried to teach me Japanese which I always forgot promptly. Except for gochisosamadeshta.

4. When Kaity and I met the boys on the PCT, we brought them ice cream, a huge costco sized bottle of prego, and a costco sized spaghetti noodles. Jesse talked about food for about 45 minutes straight as we walked to the campsite, and then proceeded to create the strangest pasta meal I've ever had. I think it included tuna. We finished the whole prego bottle too. We also made some instant pudding (pistachio) with powdered milk and I ate two milk powder clumps that hadn't dissolved in the pudding, and both of them just laughed at me. That night we made a campfire and talked until I couldn't keep my eyes open. Jesse claimed the one-person tent and shouted out to those of us left at the fire several times that it was so roomy and wonderful to be in there by himself. The best part of the trip was swimming across the lake to the rock where the boys stretched their emaciated bodies and sunned.


4.5 On that same PCT trip the trio (twins+David) came to my house for a weekend. My dad washed their socks 3 times in the washing machine and then decided to throw them away. We pretty much just hung out and ate food. I was trying to fatten them up so that their flesh could sustain them with life for the last part of the trip. The boys laid on the grass and slept, saying they couldn't believe how soft my grass was. Christian was so skinny he wore my shorts all weekend. They all wore my dad's clothes to church on Sunday.

5. In college I often read Christian and Jesse's papers. I'm not sure how helpful I was but our animated conversations about the writing styles were always interesting. Mostly I liked to be present whenever Jesse read one of Christian's papers, because he would always rag on something Christian did, and then I would try to point out a similar quality in Jesse's paper at a later date.


6. The first time I ate a real guava I was walking to school in the early morning and Christian was suddenly running down the street (Iosepa) towards me. He had guavas in his hands and wrapped up in his shirt. He had run to Laie Falls early in the morning and handed me one as he ran by. I saved it for lunch and thought it was the most wonderfully complex fruit I'd ever had. Jesse made my first waiwi smoothie, which was an unnatural pink but tasted delicious. Sienna was listening to Jesse explain how to make a perfect smoothie, as if he was explaining something as important as an equation to determine the velocity of lightwaves.

Pretty much all of my twin memories are accompanied with mental pictures of light reflecting on curls and laughter that scrunches cheeks. I hope you guys have a very happy birthday. I'm very much missing the bonfire and company associated with it.