01531: Celebrating Our O Bar Family

So it looks like Tobie and I are definitely back in the O Bar swing. It's hard to say no to invites from friends to join them at the bar - it's part of the big reasons why O Bar has always felt like a second home of sorts.

The term family is a strong one that often gets mis-used in the matter of regular discourse. In this case, I think it's as good a term as any to describe the unique mix of friends that add color to every time we head to O Bar. And in this case, our diverse little family consists of our good friends, the amazing performers and even a fair amount of the staff. It's hard to determine just how things ended up this way but I know Tobie was the defining factor here. I'm not exactly known for being sociable and thus many of our O Bar friendships are because of him. I guess the only way that I manage to "socialize" with people is with my camera and my efforts to document every wild night. Actions are supposed to speak louder than words, right?

And last night was great - and certainly helpful given just how stressed I have been at work. And it's not like my fun has ended just yet - I still have a lot to deal with in the week ahead and at least now I have the warm memories of our O Bar family to keep me going through the week.

Admittedly one of the main challenges with trying to get back into the O Bar groove is just trying to figure out how to handle all of our relationships that also had their roots in Prince. Naturally he had his own circle of friends that we were introduced to, some of which became good friends over time as well.

Initially I was worried that those friends closer to Prince would not be comfortable around Tobie and me. It's a natural conclusion given the break-up and typical social dynamics. But over time I've been proven very wrong and in fact everyone seemed to just wonder why the heck Tobie and I hadn't been going to O Bar as much as before. I opt not to answer that question whenever it's raised. Instead I just stress that it's in the past and what is more important is how fun it is to be back.

Plus it's just crazy funny to see how so many members of the staff are happy to see Tobie at the bar again. We've always been very supportive of everyone and we do our best to be good customers and I guess they do feel it. And for that I'm totally glad for the support and the warm reception that we always receive at the bar.

So yeah, we still love O Bar. It's probably a good thing that O Bar Ortigas moved to a new location after we had all broken up since it helped us leave behind a lot of the memories of the ASA Family from the old venue of the bar. Still the same friends and the same great music but with a much more fabulous performance stage.

It's the perfect place to make new memories and perhaps meet new friends and all that jazz. So if you do bump into me and Tobie at O Bar, feel free to say hi. Seriously, at the very least we can raise our glasses in a touch and then all enjoy the drag show together. It's but one of the many things that makes O Bar so fabulous and fun.

And if you're really lucky, then perhaps you'll be able to find a "family" of your own as well.