shortly after Sidney Poitier eloquently delivered one of the most inspiring, generous acceptance speeches i've ever heard for his honorary Academy Award, D called to say that DA wouldn't be going to the Equinox party after all . . . he says u can have his ticket . . . fortunately the Oscars dragged on for another couple of hours giving me more time to recuperate . . . there's an expression for guys like us i said as i hopped in the cab with D: there's no fool like an old fool . . . when we pulled up in front of Octagon on East 33rd Street a little before 2 a.m., i really didn't expect we'd find many people . . . i mean didn't all gay boys want to see Gwyneth Paltrow show her nipples at the Oscars? . . . apparently not, because the space, tho much more intimate than Roseland, already was filled with a decent crowd who, for the most part, avoided black completely . . . who needed more X with such a great vibe and so many attractive men? . . . but once we started dancing to Susan Morabito's music, far better than anything i had heard at the Black Party (tho she, too, succumbed to the Doobie Brothers), keeping my energy and losing my inhibitions seemed a lot more important than getting an erection . . . as usual D preferred the perimeter where there was more room to dance . . . i marvelled at the people around us . . . the tiniest hunk U ever have seen with an adorable man i recognized from the White Party who had to double over before they could communicate . . . a guy who resembled a frog surrounded by smooth, youthful beauties, several of whom kept smiling at me . . . fortunately, it wasn't long before D hooked up with the lumbering beast who had rimmed him at the White Party but who had been dancing with a skinhead in camouflage overalls when we arrived . . . this gave me the freedom to roam and i soon found myself face to face with slim, sexy, social S, who began introducing me to his tribe, most of whom were from Boston . . . i felt like he had given me the key to circuit city and within moments i was on the inside looking out for the very first time . . . i flitted from one guy to the next but kept returning to a man who had given me an unforgettable kiss before releasing me back into the writhing mass of flesh . . . MM eventually grabbed my hand and led me to a couch where we kissed and explored each other's bodies . . . will u stay here if i promise to come right back? he asked . . . sure . . . 5 minutes passed, then 10 . . . so this is how circuit boys dump u when they've had their fill! . . . i couldn't find D back on the dance floor but the key S had handed me still worked and almost immediately unlocked a cluster of three guys . . . we formed a box . . . one guy pulled out all of our limp dicks ("E dicks," according to MM) . . . u need to smile more said the tallest one to me as he played with my foreskin . . . sorry, fella . . . how about if i stick my index fingers in your ass and the guy's to my right while all four of our mouths meet in the middle instead? . . . all the time dancing to the beat, mostly up and down, sweat pouring off my back in torrents, our bodies melding into a single organism . . . sexual osmosis for the duration of a song i no longer can remember . . . so this is what i have been resisting . . . one guy drifted away, then another, leaving me with someone who didn't really appeal to me on his own . . . i guess the whole is greater than the sum of its parts in these situations . . . at that moment i spotted MM, now wearing a shirt . . . he beckoned me over to apologize . . . i went to look for my lover to tell him that i wanted to take u back to my hotel room but i couldn't find him . . . i knew u wouldn't be waiting for me when i returned . . . do u want to go? . . . i gulped . . . u mean stop dancing just when i'm feeling like Eliza Dolittle after she's fooled everybody at the ball into thinking she's someone she's not? . . . oh, what the hell . . . like they say, a bird in the hand and there was that goal still left unfilled by the Black Party . . . i informed D i was leaving and accompanied MM to his room at the Belvedere where, until we were interrupted by three returning friends, i spent two of the most blissful hours of my life . . . to use MM's phrase, we "pleasured" one another but the experience went way beyond the sensual for me, as intense as that aspect was . . . if S had given me the key to circuit city, MM explained its mysteries . . . the first thing u must always remember is that everything that happens on the dance floor is play . . . if u expect to go home with somebody who really turns u on, u r going to be disappointed he warned . . . does that mean what happened with us was the exception to the rule? i wanted to ask, but didn't, recalling that D had broken away from MM after i had first danced with him . . . no matter, i stayed in the moment, hoping the imprint of his body would last forever . . . or at least until the next circuit party.