Earlier this year, I fulfilled one of my Bucket List items – attending my first Masquerade Ball in the greatest city in the world – NYC! Truly a dream come true for me and all for a wonderful cause, supporting The Center which is the home of NYC’s LGBTQ community, providing programs for health, wellness and community connection. I was honored to be asked to attend with a fellow colleague of mine that was on the Board for the event, and boy did we have a blast!
We kicked off the evening by dining at Junoon, a 3-star Michelin restaurant serving the finest Indian cuisine (another first as this was my first Michelin star restaurant I had the chance to dine at). We were joined by a group of his friends and family, which was the perfect way to get to know everyone before we danced the night away at the ball. I’m not usually the biggest fan of Indian food but this was truly something special. For $85, you embark on a culinary journey through their Tasting Menu, and it was divine! The eggplant was my favorite dish but the Gin & Tonic with the magical leaf inside was the real star of the show.
The interior of this beautifully designed restaurant is a site to be seen as well!
This was located downstairs – a rare peek at the herbs and spices they use.
Now for the fun part – the masks!!!
The event was held at the beautiful Paramount Hotel in Midtown. The decorations were decadent, the cocktails were flowing and the music was pumping! They even had beautiful girls hanging from the ceiling – click here to see for yourself.
One of my absolute favorite moments of the night was dancing in the middle of a beautiful group of gay men to Lady Gaga’s ‘Born This Way’. It’s hard to put into words how incredible the energy on that dance floor felt. Each one of us were belting out the words like the song was made just for us. Although I only knew one person in that entire place, I felt like I was best friends with everyone there. We danced all night long and I even got a chance to hang out in the VIP area with some of the best looking people in NYC. It was such a fantastic way to be welcomed to my new life in NYC, especially since I had only been living there for 6 weeks. This was the type of night I had dreamed of when I was a sad and lonely girl living in Delaware. This was the type of night you watched on Sex and the City and hoped you would get an invite to. That night I felt the energy of the universe start to shift in a positive direction for me. I felt like everything was finally starting to fall into place and that this is where I truly belonged.
XoX,
Avril