PROFILE IN THRIVE: Chelsy & Melissa Mitchell

Dear Everyone:

          

          I recently spent a weekend in the Hamptons with two very wonderful people who also happen to be identical: Chelsy and Melissa Mitchell.  They're twins.  They lived in the city this year, but would, every now and then, venture back to their home in Sag Harbor.  This is how their double life began.  At home, they concern themselves with teaching yoga and and enjoying salt water and sand, and in the city they're busy dancing in the Lower East Side and hiding from (or not hiding from) the cameras.  I don't want to say too much about them in this simple introduction because I'm certain that this is one of the best, most charming and informative profiles I've done in quite a while.  If you don't want to befriend the Mitchell twins after what you learn here, you might want to reread the interview.  

The interview began on a beach in Bridgehampton on a warm Sunday afternoon.    

JORDAN: Tell the readers a little about yourself.  How about your favorite season, your favorite snack, and your favorite summer pastime.  

MELISSA: Favorite season: spring.  Chelsy's is fall, I can speak for her.

CHELSY: Well, right now it's summer.  But yeah, fall.

M: What are you talking about?  It's fall.  Favorite snack: banana. 

C: Snack?  God, I don't know.  Probably something dry.  Dry... papaya.  Do I sound like a grandma?  

M: Coming home from the ocean around 3 o'clock and taking a nap.  That's my favorite summer pastime.

C: Waking up really early, going to yoga, and then crawling to the beach.  The ocean, per say. That's mine.

As mentioned before, Chelsy and Melissa were born and

 bred in the Hamptons, but live in the city for most of the school year.  On some weekends, they trek out to Sag Harbor for house parties, family get-togethers, and the sheer bliss of a quiet coast before the summer comes and the tourists stick their flags in the dunes.  By that time, though, the twins have already moved back-- it's the city that becomes the sometimes/sometimes not weekend destination in the summer.  

J: You spend much of the off-season year between New York and Sag Harbor.  What's it like?  Sum it up for me.

M: Two different worlds.

C: The best of both worlds.

M: Can we share that as our answer?

J: Ha!  Of course.  Tell me, what's the biggest difference?

C: Between us?

J: No, between the Sag and the City.

M: The boys for sure.  

I encouraged this answer.

M: Tight pants are nonexistent in Sag.  

J: Pun intended?

No one laughs.

C: The pace is much different.  

M: It's so true.  I come here and I'm rushing for no fucking reason.

C: Ha!  What if someone reads this and says "What a sad life they have?"

M: Pathetic.  

J: Ooooh, what would you say if someone said that?

C: I'd say did you read the interview?  

Perfect.  A conversation about wet suits and surf lessons begins as a surfing friend walks by.  The twins know everyone within a thirty beach towel radius, and they have interesting things to say about each person.  A family chiropractor here, a high school friend there, a total wreck from up island, etc.  After a quick discussion of the day's surf commences, it is decided that the twins will ride the waves if there are body suits available for them to borrow.  Of course there are.  Chelsy sports the bright pink suit of a friend's middle school sister and Melissa will wear a grown man's (she'll cuff the sleeves, 80s style).  

M: I'm scared.

C: Lets try.

M: Maybe we should just wait.  I don't wanna die. I need a good swim, though.  A good swim to lean my legs out!

I try my best to steer their attention back to the interview.

J: So you're apartment hunting, how goes it?

M: Ugh.  it's a cruel, cruel world.

C: It's hard to know when you're being taken advantage of...

They're not having it, the interview must come to an end for now.  It's been decided: they're too excited about surfing.  I follow them down to the water where their friend gives them an impromptu surfer's safety talk and two minute lesson on the sand.  And before I know it, they're in the water.  Chelsy catches a few momentary waves, Melissa tries her best.  A "douche bag surfer" tells them to move because he's actually surfing.  NEVER!  

The next morning, we take the Hampton Jitney back to the city.  I'm not prepared to go back, but I take the time to conduct the final part of the twins' interview.  

J: Answer me THIS for our interview: what is the Jitney?

M: It's the link between East Egg and West Egg, filled with douche bags like the guy in front of you.

Melissa is referring to a gentleman who scolded Chelsy for using her cell phone after an announcement was made instructing passengers to resist the need for telephone conversations.  Chelsy couldn't hang up on the real estate agent on the other line whisper as she might, she was, well, scolded.  Here's how the conversation went:

PASSENGER: Did you hear the announcement, or are you just ignoring it?

CHELSY: I heard it.  

PASSENGER: Yeah?  Well...

MELISSA: We get a three minute emergency call. 

PASSENGER: Real estate is not an emergency. 

MELISSA: You're an emergency. (ZING!)

CHELSY: (Into the phone, after she has told the man helping them with apartments that she'd prefer he email her and hung up) Sorry mom, we know you're in trouble, wish we could help you out.   

But, back to the interview.

M: The Jitney, for me, is a transition.  It's the time to 

prepare for the two extremes.  I just get time to myself to think and listen to some full albums on my iPod.  Sorry if I'm coming off as a sarcastic "NB."  We're sarcastic... couture yogis... with a plan to take over the world.  

C: Just a note on our sarcasm so we don't actually seem like bitches: we are sarcastic, horribly sarcastic at that.  Only those who can handle or dish it back are our friends.  And those who can't: beat it.

J: It's fine, I love it.  Where's your favorite place in the city and where's your favorite place in Sag?

M: My favorite place in Sag is Tapovana Yoga Stuido.  If I had a choice, I'd sleep there on my yogamat every night. 

C: Yeah, same for me.  Tapovana the Ashtanga Yoga.  Gladly sleep there.  

M: My favorite place in the city is Tompkins Square Park because every time I step foot in there I feel 15 and filthy again.  

C: My favorite place in the city is Washington Square.  I like the vibe of the crowd that assembles there.  

M: I like Tompkins because it was where we always went when we came to visit NYC kind of by default.  So it's like the uncle that would get offended if I said otherwise.

The evening before we boarded the Jitney to come back to the city, there was a family get together at their home.  Chelsy and Melissa will be going to Spain on Saturday, and will therefor miss Father's Day, so the family celebrated it early.  This was my third (yes, I'm counting) holiday at the twins' home in Sag, and I loved it just as much as the others.  There's always thousands of wonder, truly wonderful and fantastic relatives, and more food than I ever know what to do with (so I eat it).  We sat outside for a bit between the cheese platter and the burgers and talked.

J: If you could take a piece of the city to the Hamptons and a piece of the Hamptons to the city, what would you take?

C: From NYC to Sag I'd take NYC's lack of shame and/or fearlessness of different styles. 

M: I'd take the boys from New York back to the harbor.  And I'd take the sense of community from the harbor back to NYC.  

C: Yeah, I'd take the willingness to say hello to your neighbor that you've seen every morning for 6 years back to the city.  And the ability to walk around barefoot wherever.

M: And Steinbeck's great stories.

They both laugh-- Steinbeck used to live in Sag Harbor.  One wonders what his stories might've been like if he'd known Chelsy and Melissa Mitchell.   

Best,

Jordan