It's Not A Bender, It's A Lifestyle.

  June is coming up fast.  Just over a month now. It'll be a skinnier trip, no crazy upgrade like last time, no flouncing around with an Emerald suite, and no big spending in general. I'll be having JUST the number on per-day cash spend budget. And right now, I have a good terrace room at Cosmo locked in for less than $100 all in, no reason to dick with that unless my offers go up in May or June, pretty significantly ( UPDATE : they didn't, at least in May). 3/$85/$50 and under a hundy all in out of pocket for my favorite resort and a non-standard room with a terrace (even if it's just looking at the ass end of Aria) is nails. I like being paid to stay in a top-tier resort in Vegas. This will be, while skinnier, a pretty relaxed trip money-wise. If I do come back with some pay it forward funds and I haven't wrecked the CC, then a late summer/early fall trip may be doable. If not, and my ass is handed to me, I can just shrivel up into a ball and financially recover ...

Going big air for JuneVegas. Decided against doing a questionable road trip over 4th of July week, and booked a fairly posh flight/parking package instead. Will be going in with a pretty much ideal arrival time of about 11:30a, 2nd row aisle seat on Southwest. The out leaves at 12:20p, so no early fly out day wake up, 3rd row aisle seat. I'll have early group boarding so can get on/off in a jiffy. Will be in the very posh Harvey Milk terminal too so may be able to use Priority Pass on the Sunday. $350, so ouch, but I was just really worried about driving on a holiday weekend, especially on the trip back.  Instead, the car will be parked in International Garage 1 at SFO, about a 10 minute walk from the gates. $220, also ouch, but it's again me paying to minimize inconvenience. I could park in an uncovered offsite lot for a lot less, but that's either a wait for a shuttle or an Uber to and from the airport to parking. I just want to get in and out of the airport as quickly as...

  Points came in from AprilVegas. It's a LOT. Gained over 16K tier points, now up over 50K...after only one Vegas trip this year. I only need 75K to retain Gold. I may get there on JuneVegas. Crazy. Also piled up some very good Slot Dollars as well, over $150, now close to $200. Look, the MGM Rewards CC is not for everyone, it's got a very specific band of value to it, but damn if I'm not in the band. Platinum level still a pipe dream, would have to get to 200K points which, nah. But I won't have much to play for the rest of the year at MGM spots, even if I didn't take a trip the rest of the year I'll get to Gold just from the monthly CC spend. Which means I'll be able to range a bit on the last 2 (3?) trips of the year. I can plug more into FB or RW to see if any comped nights come out of that. Might have to work too hard to get into FB's good graces but RW's system is so retarded they may pay me. We'll be able to find out. There's no other ...

  Back to the hobbit hole from AprilVegas. High/lowlights. Flights: The in was fine, on time despite a bit of a tarmac hold and got me on the ground a little after 1p. The out was a shitshow. Fucking incoming landing delays kept pushing the flight back time and again. Didn't finally get off the ground, for a 1:30p flight, until after 5:30p. Nightmare. I hate waiting for anything, even more so waiting in a packed airport on flyout day when I'm tired and hung over. Not United's fault, but just bad. Rooms/Resort: MGM Grand, the Emerald suite was a banger all around. Huge room, 3 bathrooms, giant TV's, bar, just amazing. Best room I've ever had in Vegas, not close. No view really but didn't care. Totally quiet and no housekeeping issues. Paying a grand was worth it in this case. Won't do it on every trip but it made it a better one. The Grand itself was fine, busy for the WWE as expected. Didn't really affect me much, usually was just there for the start and...

  I'm a silly bitch. I just upgraded to an Emerald One Bedroom Suite at the Grand for this week. Over 1300 sq ft. One big bedroom, a guest bathroom and a HUGEnormous master bath, wet bar, fridge, shuffle ball table (!), black marble everywhere, big lounge area with a 65". Three sets of windows on a high-ish floor, hopefully with a strip view. Crazy. It would be a $4600 suite for the 5 nights if I wasn't in Rewards. I'm getting it for $945 for the week for me, so a stupid discount. It might be the baller-est suite I've ever had in Vegas. I SO don't need it, but at this point I honestly don't know how many more birthday month trips I'll have to Vegas, or anywhere, for that matter. I'm certainly not getting any younger or healthier. Let's go big while I can, is what I'm thinking. I have a little extra cash in the bank RN, so fuck it. The CC will take a post-trip hit but I've already paid it down by $500 today after booking and I'll jus...

  Getting dangerously close to AprilVegas. Pulled the sacrificial gambling fund out of the bank today. I'll be taking $5500. $1K for each full day and a little "walking around" money for the airport and cab and stuff Wednesday. Still have all bills covered and am paying down the CC somewhat on this check so I'm not leaving myself destitute as I have done at times in the past. The 401K loan was not ideal, but hopefully I can pay some of it forward to a summer trip if the VP doesn't murder me. The fund is meant to be spent, but again, it doesn't suck to bring some home. I may end up putting a couple grand on the CC especially at MGM spots, but I should be able to dig out of that next month then can start saving for (hopefully) June or (probably) August. I'll make that call of which summer trip timing when I get back from this one. June would save me a few PTO days but otherwise it's a wash. Maybe one last check-in before I go, but yeah, the hype is real ...