Twin Switching -- From Traci

For those of you joining us for the first time, please go back and start reading from the beginning (back in August 2005). Otherwise, the blog may not make much sense to you.

Hi, this is Traci, the Blog Administrator... The twins are trying to decide what should be posted here and what shouldn't. I apologize for the delay. I was reading back over the posts and some of the emails, and some of them are really interesting about twins switching places. I thought maybe we could open up a discussion about that while we wait... If you are a twin or know a twin who has switched places, please email your stories to me. We'll try to put together a posting with everyone's comments, so be sure to indicate if it's okay to post it on the blog. You are also welcome to send in your impression of identical twins overall...and how this blog has or hasn't changed your view of twins.

And, of course, if you do send in your comment or email, we will send you a totally imaginary Twinkie Experiment T-shirt!

Thanks to all you loyal Twinkie Fans out there! Time to go buy a box and eat some while we're waiting.

Traci
Email inquiries: attorneyhaylie@yahoo.com

Happy New Year! -- From Amy

Happy New Year, Ya'll!! While Ashley has been portraying me down here at the coast, I was up north living in her condo. Yes, while she was on the beach and enjoying the ocean, I was "enjoying" the lovely white fluffy stuff. I took this picture of the view behind Ashley's condo. Talk about a contrast to the view outside my house!

Sorry about the delay in the blog posts. Ashley and I have been having "creative differences" about this blog. To make a long story short, Ashley read my comment about her and Tarkington and said: I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU TOLD THEM THAT!

The way I see it, Professor Tarkington is MY professor. MINE. What happens at the law school is my business because these people think that was ME doing all that stuff. So why can't I talk about it? Ashley really loves all of you out there and appreciates your support. I understand that, and I think that's great. But, it doesn't mean that you should have the details glossed over or sugar-coated. I'll try to give you hints about Tarkington when I can--until I can figure out a way to give you the whole story...

How embarrassing that Ashley and I are having a fight on the world's stage. This has to be my mom's worst nightmare...

Back to what happened to me... As one of the Commentors pointed out (and made me laugh), the Twinkie Experiment wasn't exactly fair--at least at the beginning, because Ashley got a nude beach, and what did I get? Altitude sickness!

Overall, I have to admit, I probably did have an easier time with the whole school thing. Dr. Lyle was in on the Twin Switch, so I didn't have to go into an academic program alone. I can't imagine for my life walking into a law school program like Ashley did. I feel bad about laughing, but I can't help it. She probably was able to do it because she has this mentality that she can handle anything. I don't think she knows even now what a lion's den she was walking into.

I had the opposite problem. Instead of walking into a room full of law students who practically pee around the room to mark their territory, I had the "huggers." You know who I'm talking about. Those people who have to hug you like they haven't seen you in years, and you are a long-lost dear friend. I'm not a big touchy-feely type person, unless it's a really hot guy who's doing the touching and feeling (haha). It's probably inherent to the whole psychology thing to have them be so tactile. Probably something Freudian.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the party Dr. Lyle had at the start of the semester was especially humorous because Ashley didn't give me a physical description of Robert. (She told me she didn't think I'd run into him.) So the problem ended up being: How do you stay away from someone when you don't know what they look like? One of these days, I'm going to ask Robert if I actually spoke to him at the party before I knew who he was...

Have I mentioned that Dr. Lyle's husband is hot? He is. Totally. Of course, he's a little old and MARRIED, but I thought he was really nice looking in a Kevin Costner kind of way. (Man, I might as well delete this paragraph now, because I'm sure Ashley will have a fit that I said that!) He was also really sweet and funny. He walked around helping the caterers and stuff at the party, and every time he'd see me, he'd say, "So, are you caught yet?" Dr. Lyle's husband is a psychologist, too. Can you imagine what their kids must be like????

The first day of school was pretty anxiety-driven. The lack of humidity in the air made my hair have more body ---something I'm definitely not used to since I've been living at the beach. We're talking flat-head city. I have a flippy haircut that is (I think) darling, and the multi-layers and flips make it look not so flat in the humidity. But when you take me from a place with 95 percent humidity and drop me into a place with 18 percent humidity, well, you can imagine what happened. The flippiness with a small "f" turned into flippiness with a big fat "F". And Ashley is not a flippy kind of person. She warned me the people up north may not take kindly to a flippy haircut on her. I tried to get rid of it. Believe me, I tried. I used water on it after it was dry. I used hair spray. I curled it under....

But when I arrived on that huge campus and walked through the wind up hill (both ways), the hair took on a life of its own. And it decided to be flippy. And I think I told you last time, that when I ran into Paige, Ashley's best friend (who I've met a few times when I've visited Ashley in the past) the very first thing out of her mouth was WHAT IS THE DEAL WITH YOUR HAIR???

Not "Hi, how are you," or "how was your summer", but a rude announcement that might as well have said, "Hey! Everyone! Look over here at this ugly hair!"

It's no secret that I am not a big fan of Paige. As this blog goes on, I think you'll understand why. The hair thing started it, though. So much for integrating quietly into the crowd. Everyone had to notice me and my hair. Which only brought on more hugging, since that's what psych students do.

What a big difference class was compared to law school. The psych seminar actually had donuts and coffee for the students! And the first day was spent going around the room introducing ourselves. Students actually talked amongst themselves WHILE Dr. Lyle was talking. And she didn't kill them. Not to mention how nice everyone was to each other. We also didn't have to read for the first day, which was weird. Some people didn't even have their textbooks yet. I was in shock.

The most fun on the first day was finally seeing who the notorious Robert was. He wasn't anything like I had imagined him from Ashley's comments. And I don't remember seeing him at Dr. Lyle's party. He's tall -- almost 6 feet, slim, but not skinny or fat. Dresses pretty nice. Dark hair and dark warm eyes with wire-rim glasses. I usually don't like guys with glasses, but he was an exception. Okay, I admit it, I thought Robert was cute from the very first day. But it's not like I hit on him or anything. I intended to keep my distance and not even speak to him.

He sat in the row in front of us, and Paige leaned over to me and said, "I guess he wants to make sure you've seen him." And in typical Paige-fashion, she said it loudly enough for him to hear. The girl sitting on the other side of me, who I called "The Screamer" for awhile since I didn't know her name, of course had to say hi to Robert. She was like leaning forward with her desk (they are the individual desks, not like the rows of tables in law school), in front of me to ask Robert how his summer was. When he turned around, he just kind of looked at me for a second and then said, "Fine." Real big conversationalist.

The first day of class left me with one major question: WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO PSYCHOLOGY?? I took a few courses in college, and I've read stuff through the years. But somehow, they changed it. It's no longer the common sense intuitive, get in touch with your inner-child's feelings, bring memories to the surface, bells ringing, dogs salivating, penis envying, human behavior study that I thought it was.

Dr. Lyle gave an overview lecture about the topics we would be covering in the course, and I was really amazed. It's now a complicated mixture of theories, statistics, philosophies, medicine, and science. I guess it was pretty arrogant of me to walk in there thinking I was up to par with the other students. Boy, did I learn that lesson the hard way...

Merry Christmas From Everybody

Here's a picture of what Christmas time looks like on the coast. Ashley took this picture from the upper deck of the Ferry on her way back home from law school on her last day as "Amy."

This is Traci, the blog administrator, and I have a message for you from the whole gang. Apparently, almost everyone (except the professors?) knows about this blog now. ( Talk about pressure...;))

We Wish You,Your Family, and Friends...A Very

Merry Christmas
& Happy New Year!!

from

Ashley & Amy
Traci
Drs. Miriam and William Lyle
Joyce (Mom)
Martin (Dad)
Robert Peevy
Paige Fowler
Charlie and his flock:
Rose
Ricky
Haylie
Giny
Billy
Emma Lee
Duane
Libby
Sammy
Regan
&
Booger

Welcome to the Twinkie Experiment Part Two

Welcome to the Real-Life Twinkie Experiment Part Two! I'm Amy Morrighan, and my twin sister's name is Ashley--who most of you already know. Just a brief background in case you are just joining us...

Ashley and I are twenty-seven year old identical twins. Ashley is in her third year of graduate school, working towards her Doctorate in Psychology. Her emphasis is on Twin Studies at the University of ______. (I still can't put the name of her school.) She lives up North where it snows more than I would like, but otherwise it's beautiful. Ashley's best friend is named Paige. Ashley used to like a guy named Robert until the great AC/DC Concert Incident last summer. Robert and Paige are also psych doctoral students. Although Paige is more into Abnorrmal Psychology...which is understandable if you've ever met her. Sorry, that was petty. Bad Amy, bad.

While Ashley is in grad school, I am in my second year (a "2L") in law school. I can't give my exact location, but I can tell you I live on the coast. My interest in law has primarily been in the area of Intellectual Property. But I also am interested in other areas which span across the board. They say the first year of law school is the worst, and mine was no exception. In fact, I can honestly say, last year was the worst year I've ever had. The coursework itself is challenging, but not as hard as they make it out to be. It wasn't the work itself I found challenging since I actually like studying the law.

The people in my life you've probably heard the most about are my professors for this past semester who Ashley encountered: Professor Rogerson, Professor Tarkington, and Professor Mathews. My two closest friends (or at least they were up until the Twin Switch) are Vicki and Beth. I am probably closest to my next-door neighbor, Charlie, who has taken in a whole lot of his kids and grandkids to live with him. He basically has a big ol' heart and loves to feed and take care of people. And dogs. He has a beach house right next to mine, and actually owns mine too, though he rents it out to me.

Ashley and I are the only kids in our family. Our parents live in (can I say where they live? No? Okay.) They live in a place that's cold, too. We have great parents who support us financially (and emotionally) while we are in school. Neither of our parents were supposed to know about the Twin Switch, but that changed when Ashley told Mom. More details about that later.

We ultimately decided to do the Twin Switch for several reasons...
1. Everyone always asks us if we ever switch places, and we wanted to see if we could pull it off now that we're adults.
2. Ashley is working on her dissertation involving twins, and she wanted to see if her advisor would let her incorporate the data from the switch somehow. Her advisor, Dr. Lyle, said she would review Ashley's and my data at the end of the switch to see if there was anything workable for the dissertation. I am sure Ashley will give you the scoop on that.
3. As mentioned above, I had a hard time with law school, and was about to give up on it, and I wanted to see if there was anything Ashley could do while she was there as me. Of course, I didn't *exactly* tell Ashley how bad things were or how much I was relying on her for help... But that's because I didn't know how things would be for her. And she told me over and over not to say anything that would alter her behavior during the twin switch.

Ashley and I also started off trying to think of a bet... I would bet we could pull off the switch (because I always knew we could), and Ashley would bet we couldn't. Unfortunately, we couldn't ever agree on what we would put for the wager. Looking back on it, I guess we could have used Robert...(Just kidding)

The whole thing seemed pretty funny at first, and we both had our doubts as to if we would actually even give it a try. Then Ashley flew down to visit me, and we started getting our hair and nails done to match each other. I thought Ashley was going to catch the first flight out when I gave her a tour of the law school, showed her where everything was, where to sit, etc. I think that's when reality set in for her. I had no idea how freaked out she was until after the switch was over and she admitted what she did the weekend right before school started... Ashley told me I shouldn't mention anything about it, but I'll see if I can put the details in.

Let's just say, Ashley didn't tell you EVERYTHING she did during the switch. I think many of you would be surprised and amused if you heard it all.

As for me, you haven't heard everything that I went through, either. Ash and I have agreed to keep this Rated G or PG since we have no idea how old our readers are. Sorry, that means no graphic details about what went on between Ashley and Professor Tarkington (Can I mention that, Ashley? No? Okay.) You didn't hear that from me...

I left for Ashley's condo up North on the weekend right before school started. Leaving the ocean was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I really felt a loss for some reason, and it wasn't until much later that I figured out why (with Robert's and Ashley's help). It felt like I was leaving my swingset or something. When we were little, Ashley and I had the coolest swingset in our back yard, with the monkeybars along the top, with a swing, the rings, glider, etc. It was awesome. Then, my dad took a job in another state, and we had to move. Without the swingset. Ash and I were mortified and actually grieved for our swingset. Anyway, that's the same grief I felt when I left the coast, and it was haunting for me. I couldn't understand it because I figured the Twin Switch wouldn't last THAT long, and I could go back anytime I wanted thanks to frequent flier miles.

When the switch ended, and Ashley and I were able to sit down and go over everything, it was then Ashley told me what she had discovered regarding identity issues for twins during our twin switch. It feels like you are leaving yourself behind when you switch places with your twin. Anything that is not exactly like your twin, you have to cut off. Completely. Otherwise people who knew Ashley would never believe I was her. It's not just leaving my "life" that was hard... It was leaving ME...all the things about me that I like (fish, crabs, etc), and having to mentally train myself to like what Ashley likes or Ashley does. Mentally, it has more of an effect on you that you might think. I could never have anticipated how much it would effect me.

So, I arrive up north, and (I hope I can tell you this part) I had Altitude Sickness for awhile because her condo is near the mountains. Going from sea-level to the mountains took some getting used to. I had migraine-like headaches for awhile. Other than that, escaping the 98 degree temperatures and 95% humidity was fabulous!! My hair just seemed to come alive for some reason. This, of course, meant I had to deal with the flippiness of my haircut. I have a medium length shorter-cut which is cut to flip in the back. Ashley said "no way" would Paige or anyone believe she would ever have a flippy cut. It was a constant battle between me and my hair there for awhile. And on my first day of class, the first words out of Paige's mouth when she saw me was: "WHAT IS UP WITH YOUR HAIR?"

I met with Dr. Lyle the Saturday before school started. Ashley thinks this woman is so great, but to be honest, she didn't make that great of a first impression on me. She came across very "snooty" almost--not very friendly to me at all. Ash says it's because she's from the North and "that's how some Northerners are," but I don't buy it. Everyone else was really nice. I also think Dr. Lyle had her own agenda with the twin switch. There were times when I definitely thought she purposely set me up to fail so she could see if anyone could tell I wasn't really Ashley.

Dr. Lyle had a student reception at her house that night, which gave me a chance to be around the Psych people before classes started. Of course, Ashley didn't describe Robert for me, so I didn't know what he looked like. She told me just to ignore him anyway, since I was supposed to be her. Ashley was mad at Robert because he never called her after their one date they had (that ended in disaster). So the plan was for me to just stay away from him. I don't think Ashley realized that Robert was signed up to be in the same seminar as I was. It was just a matter of time before I ran into him.

At Dr. Lyle's party, however, I tried to avoid him. But how do you avoid someone when you don't know what that person looks like???

There was a girl at the party named Jamie who walked over to me first thing and wanted to know how my "date with Robert" went. I told her I didn't want to talk about it, and she said, "Oh, that's because he's HERE, isn't he?" I almost freaked out right then because for all I knew, I had already been talking to him and been sickly-sweet and nice, like I was trying to be to everyone I encountered. Later during the party, Jamie came up to me again to let me know she saw Robert in the livingroom. I tried to sneak a peek at the guys in the livingroom to see if I could guess which guy my sister would like. I didn't have Robert pegged right, though. I still can't remember if I actually talked to him or not before I knew who he was. If I did, I'm sure he thought it was weird, because on Monday, when I really did find out who he was, I intentionally stayed away from him.

Well, I wanted to give ya'll some background on me and to kind of let you know where things started. This has been just some general comments, and next I'll try to get into the details more.

From Ashley

Hi Everybody~!

I took this picture right out in front of Charlie's and Amy's beach houses. It's my favorite time of day--sunset.

I apologize for not posting sooner. Things have been pretty hectic, as you can probably imagine. Thanks to everyone for your kind emails to Traci that she forwarded to me. It has meant a great deal.

As I think Traci posted already, Amy would like to have a chance to give her side of the "story." She read my blog postings, which is okay, since I was trying to get her to switch back and told her where the site was so she could know what's been going on in her life. She isn't actually mad or anything; she just wants people to see how things were for her before they judge her. I told her no one is judging anybody. Life is life, and we're all human. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone, so to speak.

I hope you all will enjoy Amy's side of things. She was going to post her own blog all along, but she wasn't sure who she could trust to get things out there without getting caught. We had some close calls, and given her background at the law school, she had to be extra extra careful. She did keep a journal though with entries, so she can make postings rather than throw it all out there all at once. I'm not sure what format she is going to use, though. I think it also depends on Traci. I suspect it will be a little at a time.

I told Amy she should try and publish the information in a book somehow since the information is already writen, instead of re-writing it as a blog. Plus, there are some details both of us experienced that we didn't (and still don't) feel comfortable putting on the computer (I think you guys might like to hear some of that stuff as well--cough, cough). So this will give Amy a chance to give you a preview of what a book might say--only the Rated G (PG?) blog version.

I know from my experience that it's really easy to form opinions about someone by watching someone else living their life. So, all I ask is that you not be too hard on me (or her) as you hear what Amy has been up to in my life. :o)

Thanks again for your friendship and support during the past months.
God Bless you,
Merry Christmas,
Happy Holidays,

Ashley Morrighan

Amy's Side of the Story - From Traci

Hi, this is Traci again. I know everyone is waiting to hear what happened with the Twin Swtich -- I have been waiting too, very impatiently. I finally heard from Ashley, and thankfully she and Amy have patched things up. Or, at least they are speaking to one another. Amy apparently discovered and read over this blog and was pretty ticked off... which I think we can all understand.

She is now demanding equal time to give her side of what happened. And she wants it before Ashley tells everyone how things ended up with the Robert situation and the Twin Swtich. Ashley asked me this morning if I would mind posting some blog entries from Amy. I don't mind doing it, but I wanted to run it by our audience out there first. I've gotten numerous emails from people over the past 4 or 5 months begging me for information about Amy. It looks like you'll finally find out what happened. Just let me know if it is something you're still interested in.

Please just post your opinion on the "Comments." And I guess we'll take it from there.

Thanks,

Traci Campbell, Blog Administrator

From Traci

Hi, This is Traci, the Blog Administrator. Ashley asked me to post this message for her. We apologize for the silence on the blog lately (part of it was my fault because I went out of town for two weeks). Ashley is still trying to get things straightened out with Amy. Amy still is trying to tell Robert SHE is Ashley, and neither Amy nor Robert will talk to Ashley, Ashley's mom, or dad.

Law school for the semester is winding down. Ashley, even though she's ticked off at Amy, doesn't want Amy to lose her legal education and chance at becoming a lawyer. So, she tried to drop the classes for the semester--saying she needed a leave of absence for family reasons. The dean said no (he sounds like a MAJOR jerk to me) about Business Associations and Criminal Procedure, since those classes are required. She can, and did, drop the Intellectual Property class. She also quit being Tarkington's Research Assistant "due to family reasons" that are taking up her time. Tarkington apparently was more understanding than the dean... Which is good, considering Ashley doesn't know squat about legal writing.

So where everything stands right now... Ashley has no choice but to try and take the final exams for Business Associations and Criminal Procedure. We all know it's a long shot...Talk about pressure! Richard, the guy who worked in the Law Clinic, is helping her study, by the way. Whether or not Ashley can pass the exams...I guess we'll have to wait and see.

But that is where she is and what is going on right now. I'm sure you'll hear from Ashley once the exams are over. Keep your fingers crossed for her...

Traci Campbell