#23 Stories: It's only appropriate to end it there

About a couple of years ago someone asked me, "But where do you party?"

I replied, "Club Haze".

Clubbing is a phase. When I was younger I thought clubbing was pointless. But along my growing interest in EDM, I find that I also crave that butter on my toast. What's a party song without the party, right? What's a dance song without the dancing, right?

I originally wanted my birthday to be private. I went around the city to look for cool places to rent but the more events places I check out, the more I realize it's going to be one hell of a headache. There's the DJs, the balloons and the setting, the mobile bar and the food, and the limited rent time. I could only book the place for 4 hours maximum, otherwise my budget wouldn't permit it. The caterer would be different from the mobile bar, and I need DJs of at least 3. I need to conceptualize the setting, which would involve the balloons if any, the placement and renting of the couches, the fog machine, and the lighting. I could hire someone to do all this, but I would be paying her cash in addition to the actual venue.

What's even worse than this is that all the places I went to were non-smoking venues. After all, no one would risk a fire, so they put up smoke detectors. This is perhaps the biggest problem I've encountered. Most of friends are damn smokers. I wouldn't want them leaving the scene just to smoke outside. I'd rather bring my party outside if that was the case.

Then I had problems with the pax. Half of my friends live in the south, and the other half up north. I wouldn't know which to prioritize in terms of the location. I've met so many people in the past year, yet somehow I find that half of their faces were blurry to my memory. They were seat fillers. 

When the final day to rsvp came about, I had enough guests to fill a private space, but not enough to go through all that trouble of organizing every angle in the picture. 

So I decided to move the party. I went south, to the very place that is so familiar to me when it comes to clubbing. I weighed the pros and cons and I realized that creating my own party would be near impractical. I would save more money if I bring my friends to the party, instead of manufacturing one. I would have everything else covered: the music, the lighting, the setting. 

But the most important factor to me was this: everyone can smoke while seated. 

When I think about that spark and where that fire originated from, I think it's here: Club Haze. I didn't even know they changed names to HIDEOUT recently. When I made up my mind to bring my party to the club instead, I initially thought of The Palace. Unfortunately, it costs more than what wallet permits. So the I stumbled across HIDEOUT at the manilaclubbing website. When I found out it used to be Club Haze, I instantly grabbed my phone and hit dial.

The very lifestyle I was trying to put an end to started at Club Haze. It's only appropriate to end it there. I didn't even realize it until I was making the reservation.