Americans in Bed Page #3

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I was slim,

trim, beautiful,

16 years old,

and the last time

I saw him, he was...

wrinkleless--

ha ha ha ha!

What?

Without wrinkles.

Uh-huh. OK.

Ha ha ha ha!

So we tried to describe

each other, and of course,

we totally lied

over the phone,

and--ha ha!--so...

he told me that he had

been in construction,

so I was expecting

this big, burly guy to

come out, down, you know.

So I see him walking

down the pathway,

and it's like...

"Hmm.

God, he's really old."

Ha ha ha ha!

That was my first thought.

What was your first thought

when you saw me?

That you were big.

Ha ha ha!

There's no hiding it.

I mean, you had

described yourself

and done a pretty good

job, but that's--

you know, so, I mean,

I wasn't expecting

the 16-year-old that I--

I wasn't

expecting that, no,

so I wasn't

necessarily surprised,

and that was fine.

LEON:
As of today's date,

we've broken up 26 times

and gotten back

together 27.

Yeah.

At least--well, we've

gotten together 27.

We've gotten back

together 27.

That's right.

His fault.

The hell it is.

Ha ha!

When things are good,

they are very, very good,

and when they are bad,

they are horrid.

Yeah, that's right.

That's right.

We can have

ultimate highs

and ultimate lows.

It's like being

bipolar.

Ha ha! We have

a bipolar relationship.

To be honest, though,

I think--and like I said

earlier, one of the reasons

I didn't get back together

with Blanca--

Is 'cause he thought

I was bipolar.

No, I don't think

you're bipolar, but--

Schizophrenic.

No, getting warmer.

Both.

You got me checked.

I'm a happy kind

of guy.

I tend to be very happy,

I love my life.

Be happy.

Things are going

really well.

But, you know, normally,

on a scale of one to ten

for happiness

in my general life,

I tend to be at least

a 7, maybe an 8.

When I'm with Blanca,

sometimes I'm a 10,

but then,

when things are bad,

they can go all the way

down to zero.

And that kind

of roller coaster of

emotions is no fun,

especially because

it wasn't something that

I felt I was doing wrong.

It was just situations

would come up and we weren't

communicating properly.

We just weren't,

and there were so many

assumptions being made,

we would just get

into these situations

where we'd be great,

and then the wrong thing

would happen and then,

all of a sudden,

she'd be blocking me

and yelling at me

and upset with me

and I wouldn't know

where it came from.

Usually it would be when

I was trying to go out of my way

to do something sweet for you.

That's the way I felt,

and it would turn into

this big argument

and then we'd break up

and that would be

the end of it,

and I wouldn't

understand why.

During this time, I said,

"OK, if you break up

with me one more time,

"then I'm not gonna get

back together with you

because I can't handle

this roller coaster

of emotions,"

and she did.

She broke up with me

one more time. I said,

"Fine, that's it.

We're not getting

back together.

I'm moving on."

[Giggling]

But I like the idea

of building a romantic,

emotionally

significant relationship

with one person.

I just had this sort

of epiphany that,

you know, sex was sex,

but love is something

special, and love is

never to be trifled with.

Right.

So I reached out

to Blanca and I

explained briefly.

I said, "Listen, I know

that we shared something

once that was very special,

"and I know that we have our

problems, but I still believe

that we love each other.

And if we love each other,

maybe we should try this

one more time,"

and now here we are,

two weeks--

two months later.

Yeah.

We've been married

71 years.

I actually started

going out with him

when I was...

I think

I was 16 years old.

And we just went out

on one date.

I dumped her.

And then we didn't

see each other again

for a while.

I dumped her.

His crowd was

too fast for me.

I wasn't up

to them yet. Ha!

Well, I don't know,

but, you know, they were

older than me, so...

She was a prude.

He came to take me

on a date when I was

16 years old,

and there were

two other couples.

She was so frightened

that she kept talking.

And they were

switching around,

well, you know,

and I'm sitting here,

I'm rough on this guy.

I'm not gonna let him--

Didn't know how

to party, you know.

He took me home anyway.

Ha ha!

Oh, he was kind of wild.

He had a lot

of girlfriends and...

but he was so cute,

he had rosy cheeks.

Ha ha!

Beautiful auburn hair

and rosy cheeks.

He was just--

he was cute.

Yeah. Time does

things to us.

Yeah, it sure does.

Actually, my wild days

were ready to be

left behind.

Yeah, once he married me,

he became a homebody.

You're partying

or you're married,

you know.

It's a different thing.

We go out alone

to dinner; I say,

"Don't you want company?

Let's see if somebody

else will go to"--

He said, "I like being

with my girl, having

dinner alone."

True.

He still makes me

feel young.

Mmm. Mmm.

Ha!

January, February,

March, April, May,

June, July, August,

September?

So almost 9 months?

Just about 9 months.

Yeah. Wow.

I feel

like we've been...

Together for a lot longer?

Yeah.

Ha ha!

Like, we don't know--

I mean, it's been

wonderful, but, like,

I think--

That was a heavy sigh.

Ha ha!

No, it was a sigh

of contentment--

OK.

And happiness.

Ha ha ha!

Yasmin was beautiful,

and her laugh

was beautiful.

Aw. Stop.

No, there's just

something very beautiful

about you, so sweet,

so, I mean, of course,

physically

and all that, you know,

that all checked out,

but I think it was just,

it was, it was just--

Can't believe you just

said that.

Ha ha ha!

I don't know.

Ha ha ha!

And who can resist

your smile?

Who can?

Yeah.

He has a nice smile.

When he said, like, you know,

"I want to marry you,"

I was just like--

I think every, like,

any breath that was in me

just, like, was gone.

And I was just...

so overwhelmed

with happiness that

finally this person is,

like, is asking me to--

or is expressing,

like, his wanting

to marry me.

And she didn't even

give me time to, like,

be nervous, to wait

for her answer.

She was just like,

"Yes!" Ha ha ha!

Yeah.

I was like, "All right."

Not for one second

did I play hard to get.

"Whew!"

Oh, my God. Yeah.

In Islam,

between men

and women, there are

certain guidelines.

Obviously, no physical

contact whatsoever

except if you're married.

So, throughout

the process of us

getting to know

each other, which was--

I forgot how long.

I think it was about

a year and a half or so,

something like that,

so, yeah, we kept that up

until we had gotten

legally married.

After we had

the religious ceremony,

we had it at a mosque,

and then I think, like,

his friends came over

and, like,

he was talking with them

and we were laughing.

And then I held his hand,

and then, like--

I could feel him, like,

fidget a little bit,

like he was, like--

like I held his hand,

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