February 10, 2002, 8:34 p.m.

In which we learn an important lesson

back & forth

She was into S & M and Bible studies,
Not everyone's cup of tea, she will admit to me...

The concert went as smoothly as a suntan-oiled whale sliding down a drinking straw, except that we forgot to record the first half and the first number of the second half; luckily, the first number of the second half was by far the foullest item on the program, since I lost my place in the figures somewhere a third of the way through the second A section and was playing either (i) in another key or (ii) one beat off for whole bars at a time. Other pieces went well, including the cyclothymic Froberger Toccata over which I've been sweating for the last three days. And LS, my boss from the FiDi, showed up, to my complete surprise. After we packed up and moved the harpsichord out to HD's house, we sat around uncomfortably in a wooden dining room, drinking white wine and trying to think what to say; at the time, I believed that it only seemed unbearably sluggish (the clock ticking with a pronounced stutter, the pacing on the floorboards) since I was looking forward to getting to my party, and only when I finally caught the 10:20 bus back from B*lm*nt did I realize that it did, in fact, take forever.

A few minutes later, though, I'm mounting the front stairs breathlessly. My house is shaking with music, and for two blocks in either direction it reeks of compacted humanity. Even from the street I can see, as the poet says,

The light reflecting off the mirror-ball
Looks like a thousand swirling eyes
They make me think I shouldn't be here at all
You know, every minute someone dies...
And, lo, I poured myself a big old martini, hugged a half dozen people I never thought I'd see again, and entered the hell of a good universe next-door.

Party. Success. In short. Although. I would recommend. Not hooking up. With your. New housemate's. Ex-fianc�. As in marriage. Right.

Hear me, suavissimi lectores: I am not to blame. I was only dancing; I was dancing in my own solarium to my own eighties music, and I just happened to snag a foxy guy. Purely by accident did I brush up against him, and it was mere chance that he pressed me up against the front windows to kiss me. LT had introduced me to him before, with a sphinxy smile on her face that admitted of the eventuality that these two boys whom she had just introduced would get along just famously. Thus it was that I deduced, quite wrongly, that the lovely D was her friend from work to whom she was so excited to introduce me. How, indeed, was I to know that he was her ex-fianc�? Most girls' ex fianc�s are not gay, you see. I have at least that going for me. But when, later, on the pillow, I asked what he did for H*rv*rd and he said, "no, I'm an architect" did I suspect, and then he said "New York" and "Ex-fianc�". I think that's when I blacked out.

After D and I had gone upstairs, LT sauntered in asked SLB where D-the-X had got to, and SLB, quasi-religiously, looked up towards my bedroom. Then, with the kind of calm only born out of extreme frustration, LT went to find D-the-X's shoes. Then she poured a bottle of beer in each, and just as calmly put them back in the hallway. Then she chatted with SLB for a few more minutes and eventually wandered off to schmooze. I wasn't there, of course, but I have SLB's word on it.

I can't imagine LT thinks any the less of me for it, but, to be on the safe side, I'll be keeping my shoes in my bedroom for the next few days.

* * * * *

Current beverage: sangria, not too splendid, but today's cynosure is "hair of the dog".
Current longings: Redemption and a backrub.
Current music: the Extra Glenns, again and again until the CD gives out. Dieupart recorder suites with Hugo Reyne. If you're feeling sinister, because I miss them. A you you never knew by the Future Bible Heroes, for EN. B-52s, Roam. Heavenly, Shallow for somebody, which isn't as bad as it sounds. And There is a light that never goes out for KG, whom I never thought I'd see again, especially never with the words "ANAΓKH" and "ΔΥNAMIΣ" tattooed on her.