My Serial Dating Life ...Better known as....Matches Made In Hell: Sometimes, You Just Have to Wing it! (Part 2 of 3)

Welcome to Tropicana NYC at the Diamond Horseshoe

Hello Blog Followers,

Happy Hump Day! As you read on Monday, my past weekend was jam packed with adventures. It started with a Thursday evening event filled with social interaction and being my friend's Wing Woman. Now onto the next evening.

The following day was Friday. WooHoo! It was what my friend and I had been eagerly anticipating for the past month. It was the Pop Up Mob Tropicana Black Tie Party at the Diamond Horseshoe. We were invited to attend by one of the creators of the event. He had been hyping this party up for some time and knew it was up our alley. He told us that there would be plenty of "cute boys" for our picking. (And not to speed right into that, but he was true to his word!) Outfit planning was key. I had a lovely Badgley Mischka black and white dress that was perfect for this Latin inspired black tie ball.

I arrived to my friend's apartment to get ready and pre-game. After the previous night, we actually decided that one glass of wine would suffice to get our blood flowing for the rest of the evening. We glamified and headed out via Lyft to the Diamond Horseshoe. (SHOUTOUT: The Diamond Horseshoe venue space at the Paramount Hotel located in Times Square area is a treat in and of itself to get a chance to visit. I am sure many of you had attended the Queen of the Night show at this place. I heard amazing things about that show. Currently it is being utilized as a venue space available for rent. Rumor is that a new production may take over the space in the near future, so stay tuned.)

As we descended into the Diamond Horseshoe, each level down was adorned with various decorations from the Queen of the Night show such as oversized candelabras dripping in wax and door knobs in replica of hands You begin to immerse yourself in a dark and seductive world. When you finally enter the main space, you get overtaken by the sheer size and intangible beauty it has. The stage was lit in a neon tropical flavor all night. There were blow up palm trees, flamingos, and lei’s added for fun and props by the photo booth. There were actors dressed in flamboyant, Latin inspired dresses handing out tropical boozy injected popsicles to get your palettes wet. Not a bad way to get the party going.

My friend and I hit up the bar and started the evening, getting to know a few main bartenders to get the drinks flowing. We handed them the popsicles we received as a barter. It doesn’t hurt to flirt and get a few good tequila shots down the hatch to loosen the soul and numb the feet for dancing all night. We met a few cute gentlemen dressed in impeccably tailored tuxedos. (Mind you, 95% of the men were in tuxedos, from black jackets to white jackets to everything in between. I am just blown away by the amount of well-dressed, good looking men. I was curious all night, asking if they truly keep a white tuxedo stored in the back of their closets or was it a rental? The following day, I saw a post on the event page for a missing white Ferragamo jacket to be returned (Totally not a rental.)). Of course, the men were also good friends with our friend who invited us. It turned out that one of the men was the founder of Pop Up Mob. Oh, and it gets better. He was a Hungarian-Moroccan Jew. (Yup. Jackpot!) We had another round of drinks and then moved onto the dance floor.

Nicolò Della Casa

April 2 at 5:40pm

If someone mistakenly got my suit jacket yesterday night at the Tropicana party (dark blue with thin light blue lines, size 46 EU, brand Ferragamo, name plate in the internal pocket and a white pochette) DM me please. I will be eternally grateful. Thanks

Grupo Irék with front man, singer Chino Pons, were mixing the sounds of Cuba, Cha-Cha, Mambo, Salsa - with New York City flavor into original tunes. They were phenomenal. I danced that evening with several gentlemen, all cuter than the next. I thank my parents for making me take ballroom dance lessons when I was younger. The skills I developed surely paid off, but I must say, these Latin men sure know how to lead and take over the dance floor.

Chino Pons and Grupo Irek providing tunes for the evening

We bumped into many friends of ours and other patrons from our weekend adventures at Felix restaurant downtown in SoHo. Seeing them all dressed to the nines and out of our usual attire definitely was a sight. As the night progressed, my friend decided she needed my wing woman skills to reappear from last night and work my magic. She fell into the arms of a dapper gentlemen she had met previously at Felix. They seemed to enjoy each other’s company and conversation so I excused myself from the area and went to seek some fun in other parts of the venue space. I always had an eye on her. Luckily her blonde hair and the gentlemen’s white tuxedo was easy to spot from the distance. (Then again there were many blondes dancing with men in white jackets. Maybe, I spotted the wrong pair.)

Low and behold by 3:30am, I receive a text message from my friend stating the following: “I can’t find you. I’m going out after with the guy for another drink. You have my spare keys. Sleep in my bed.” Well, that was enough for me to know where the evening is heading. By 4am, my body was exhausted. I spotted the two of them by the bar as I quietly made my exit. I hopped into an Uber and made my way back to her place. I woke up the next morning and left her apartment for my work out with my personal trainer before she arrived back home.

It is evenings like these that I hope to be able to surprise my kids with my stories on how much fun mommy and daddy had in our prime. It is also nights like these, that will surely keep me up at night thinking my kids may be doing the exact same thing. But, that is a long ways away, so until then, let the good times keep rolling!

Stay tuned to Part 3 of the finale to the saga of my past weekend adventures!