Lisa Greenstein 2007

So February swung round this year with a bit of a seedy thing going. I'd reached the end of my Year of Internet Dating, which had yielded more stories that can be related here, but then found myself reading Angelica's Grotto and felt like I'd been thrown in the deep end. So to speak. And in the background, for the past few months, Lara [Hoffenberg] and I have become regular gym-goers, and keep finding ourselves getting all sweaty on these squeaky machines while discussing not-so-squeaky things. So getting some yellow-paper action in among the locker rooms and weight machines seemed somehow.... inevitable really.

So first I hunted for some lockers that were, er, locked - it being late at night, there weren't that many. But #69 was forthcoming, along with #130 and a few others. Not #14, but you can't always get what you want, apparently. Then slipped some in between the 10 and 15kg weights on the thigh abductor machines. And that other machine where you open and close your arms like a book and it does amazing cleavage things.

Unfortunately we forgot the camera, so I don't have actual on-site visual evidence this time round, but perhaps that's in keeping with the subterraneanness of it all too.

The quotations follow below...

"Do you think men will ever feel equal to women?"
"Obviously they can't feel equal until they are equal, and whether or not that'll ever happen I can't say. But before any change can happen there has to be recognition of the present situation, and that's the object of this study."
"I'm afraid I'm too old to change, Melissa."
"Nobody's asking you to. I'm not exactly a role model either and I'm too perverse to change, so I guess the two of us will have to carry on being less than perfect."

from Angelica's Grotto

The sky grew dark as they went down Piccadilly towards Green Park Station, Klein whispering, "A winged horse can't do my flying for me, I have to do it on my own. We are something to each other. You don't always know what's happening when it's happening. `This can't be love because I feel so well…' " Suddenly there was rain beating down, urgent and shining and steaming on street and pavement. "You go on ahead, he said, "I can't run."
"A little rain won't hurt me," she said, and pressed his arm closer to her. Drenched and smiling, he felt almost middle-aged again.

from Angelica's Grotto

"I'm not in love with her," Klein whispered into his hand. "That would be too pathetic."
"What are you whispering?"
"I'm not in love with you, Melissa."
"That's perfectly all right, Harold, but if you want to be in love with me, that's all right too. An experience can be life-enriching even when it's emotionally frustrating."
She said this tenderly, with her hand on his arm and her blue eyes full on him. Klein kissed her and she kissed him back.
"This is my life now," he whispered into his hand. "The past doesn't go away, but the present steps in front of it."

from Angelica's Grotto

Love Lisa