I Think That Everyone Has A Twin... - Leslie In Little Rock

Lynn McGee and Leslie Doan at Six Flags in St. Louis

I remember watching a TV movie in 1998 called Nightmare Street starring Sherilyn Fenn from the cult classic Twin Peaks as a young widow named Joanna who also exists in a Parallel Universe as another woman named Sarah. Years later, I’m still trying to figure out what happens in the end of this movie, but it made me think about Parallel Universes and Alternate Universes, where everyone has a twin. Not someone who shares a physical resemblance with you but someone with who you have a lot in common. I often wondered if I have a twin out there and if so, where is she? I found out this summer that I do have a twin and her name is Lynn!

It all started when my two teenage daughters, 18-year-old Lauren and 14-year-old Sara, and I flew to Chicago to attend the Glee Live concert on June 4. As we were walking up to the arena the afternoon of the concert, I asked a teenage girl standing nearby if this was the line for the VIP tickets. A lady who was the mother of the girl said she wasn’t sure, but we decided to try to find out ourselves and went inside the box office lobby, got our tickets and went back outside to the line.

We started talking and I found out that her name is Lynn McGee and she lives in Joliet, Illinois. I also discovered that she has two daughters the same ages as my girls and that her oldest daughter, Emma, just graduated from high school like Lauren and that her youngest, Hannah, just completed middle school like Sara. By this time, all six of us had moved inside into a large room in the back of the arena for a pre-party for the Glee concert.

Sara, Leslie & Lauren Doan

As we all ate snacks and made ice cream sundaes, Lynn and I found out that we had more in common. We both brought our daughters to the Glee concert as a high school graduation gift for our oldest ones. Not only are we both huge Glee fans, we also are both fans of actor/singer Darren Criss, who plays Blaine on Glee and in addition helps run a musical theater company called StarKids located in Chicago.

Hannah, Lynn & Emma McGee

My girls and I had seats on the 4th row on the floor, near where Lynn and her girls were sitting on the 3rd row. Lynn and I talked again after the concert, exchanging Facebook accounts with each other and taking one last picture of all four girls together outside the Allstate Arena.

When we returned to Little Rock that weekend, we continued to connect with Lynn sharing dozens of pictures she took at the concert with me through Facebook. The more we got to know each other, the more things we found out that we have in common, such as we both have calico cats named after Disney characters, we have daughters that are dancers, and we both work in some sort of capacity for a college. The similarities continued: we both count “Miracle on 34th Street”, “Grease” and “The King’s Speech” as a few of our favorite movies; Mark Ruffalo as one of our favorite actors; and we both have seen “Raiders of the Lost Ark” more than 100 times – Lynn because she’s a big fan of Harrison Ford, and I because I worked at a local movie theatre during the summer of 1981 that showed the movie!

Lauren & Sara Doan and Emma & Hannah McGee
Glee Live Concert, Allstate Arena, Rosemont, IL June 4, 2011

A month after we first met, we met again, thanks to Darren Criss! He was performing concerts at two Six Flags amusement parks in July and Lynn told me that she and her daughters already had tickets to the concert in St. Louis on July 21. After a lot of planning and good luck, Sara and I drove seven hours to St. Louis and met Lynn, Emma, Hannah, and their friend Katie at Six Flags the day of the concert. Thanks again to more good luck I acquired two “Meet & Greet” passes to meet Darren at 4:45 that afternoon!

Sara and I met Darren, who recorded a short “Video Hello” for Lauren who had been in New York and unable to make the trip to St. Louis. He also signed Glee concert pictures and Sara’s Glee T-Shirt for us along with signing a pair of hot pink sunglasses and two Warblers CDs for Emma, Hannah, and Katie.

StarKids Fans Sara Doan, Hannah & Emma McGee and Katie Votik
Six Flags at St. Louis, July 21, 2011

Lynn and I visited more before the concert and found out that we have other things in common, including we have both had breast surgery and we both like to spend time talking about Movie & TV Trivia and meeting celebrities in amusement parks. It turns out that Lynn and her husband ran into country singer Clint Black three different times and that my daughters once rode a roller coaster with Rick Springfield!

We all had a great time at the concert and texted each other as we drove back on the way back to our different states the following morning.

The rest of the summer we continued to text and correspond through email and Facebook. Some of the things we share are big such as when I told her about my husband and I meeting Lauren and Sara in Washington, DC while they were on our FaithSpring Church youth group Music & Mission trip during the last week in July and Lynn told me when she took Emma and Hannah to a local movie theatre to meet actor Tom Felton from the Harry Potter movies and about their family vacation to Minneapolis in August.

Other things are small, like the time when Lynn texted me that two male co-workers spent their whole lunch hour arguing about which actor was a better Batman! Or the fact that we both sent each other the same text at the same time about Chris Colfer’s upcoming appearance on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

Lynn once told me that her husband thinks it’s fate that we met, and I know my daughters are glad that I have someone else besides them to share my obsessive love of Glee and innate TV and Movie Trivia. We both are counting the days until the Glee Season 3 Premiere on September 20!

We both have families, homes, jobs and responsibilities with church and kids’ activities and it has been nice to connect with someone who shares so many of the same interests.

What started out as a mutual adoration for a popular TV show has turned into a friendship that could last a lifetime.

Sara and I met Darren Criss at a “Meet & Greet” before his concert at Six Flags in St. Louis!

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