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

Well, that was...interesting. Can't call that one a good trip by any means, but it will be one that I remember, at least parts of it. Other parts I don't remember at all. First night, flew in on plan, taxi'd over to Flamingo to check in. Got in/out of check in and up to my room in no time. Flamingo's "Deluxe" rooms are no Bellagio (nor even a NYNY) but it was relatively clean, modern (faux wood floors and all) and definitely a step up from the awful Harrah's room from last trip. Good center Strip view and oh, yeah, free. Came down and hit some of the normal spots, Henry and Bond at the Cosmo, Rock House at Venetian then decided to check out the Bourbon Room in Venetian. Kinda cheesy, light crowd, 80's videos on a huge screen. Contrived. Was just going to have one there and mosey, but these two girls sit down on either side of me. Can immediately tell I'm being worked since the one in front of me is looking back at her friend behind me every 3...

8 hours until I'm on a plane to unincorporated Clark County. Plan to be a very bad Santa indeed. Got a new Altoids tin today (for reasons) and a big sandwich to hold me over, going to take a nap in a little bit then it's up to shower and shave and off to Vegas for 5 nights, 4 days. If you see another post on this blog, it won't be for lack of trying to kill myself. Commence the Lost Christmas.

Another year in the books. Fairly uneventful, this one, and mainly good. Work took a turn for the better as I got myself out of a glorified manual labor job into more of a self-supervising middle management role at my company. My role is a bit nebulous at the moment and there may need to be some re-focusing in the new year but I'm able to basically run my own days with little or no interference or oversight. Pretty awesome for someone with my lack of formal business or college training. The company itself is doing very well and though I'm slightly the "weird guy" there the job seems safe and stable for the foreseeable future. Making decent money, will be around $35K net, which is fine for me as I have minimal obligations. The slashing of obligations was a theme of the past year, as I finally got out of debt and now live almost completely within my means; no mortgage, no car payment, no real bills aside from a quarterly Healthy SF contribution and cell phone ...

Exactly one week from right...now...I will be on a plane to Las Vegas for the 3rd time this year. Not much to be said that hasn't been already. The cash is in a good place, the freebies are ready to redeem, and I have a good plan set up that even if I do nothing but follow it to the letter (which never happens in Vegas) it'll still be a great trip. Lot of drinking, good eating, and fun to be had. Everything in place for a rager to end up the year and bust the shit out of the City rut. 3 more days of work, then I have 3 days off (with a free holiday party in the middle) to rest up, pack and get hype before the quick flight in to town and commence the crazy. One. More. Week.

17 days to Heaven or Las Vegas. $2800 in the Vegas fund now, one last check to fill it out. Should be close to my $3900 goal, I have nothing but 1/2 rent to pay for on the 20th check so I will be able to throw $1100-ish in the pot. That's the goal on the number, and I hope to do a little OT in the next week (15th is the payroll cut off) to get a little extra what I call "walking around" money, for pre-game drinks at SFO and the cab ride from LAS to the Flamingo. I am  slightly  concerned about my cash level for the whole 4 1/2 days so I'm going to take it very easy on gambling for the first couple days, my primary objective when there anyway is to drink well, eat well and "mingle", so I may only drop a few hundie on the slots on Eve and Xmas so that the bankroll is in a good place for the last two days. I'll have the $300 from the MB room hold returned to me on the 27th, have a couple extra hundie I can use on my MasterCard if need be and should h...

T-minus 1 month until Vegas. The fever is back for me right now. So pumped for this trip. The last Xmas trip last year was awesome, there's such a great vibe in town that week. It's mellow, not the usual tourist crowd, you can get a seat at any bar or restaurant and you're not crushed by humanity everywhere you go when walking the Strip. This will be a long trip, as I went ahead and booked the extra night in advance and changed my flight out to the 28th instead of the 27th. 5 nights, 4 days. Should be out before the real douche crowd starts rolling in for NYE, though there could be some doucheiness on the 27th. Whatev. That last night I'll probably be pretty tuckered out after 4 consecutive nights of drinking, doing blow and chasing tail, so it may be an early one, especially since my flight leaves at 10:30a the next morning. Going to make sure I get enough rest this time, last trip I hit a wall about 3/4 of the way through and needed a 10 hour sleep to regain ...

Vegas' demographic is shifting. In the hey-day of Vegas, the 60's-70's when every name who was a name did a residency at one of the Strip resorts, the target demo was 40-year-olds and up. In most of the vintage Vegas photos you see (check out @classiclasvegas on Twitter) you see nothing but middle aged white guys and their big-haired wives. Everyone's wearing a suit or an evening dress. The entertainment is dinner theater, Martin and Lewis, Frank, Hollywood stars, lounge and Broadway acts. Now the DJ culture has taken over Vegas. Nightclubs drive the social scene; Marquee club at Cosmopolitan accounts for 13% of the resort's revenue. ONE CLUB. It's $1500 bottles of Grey Goose, spiked hair and fake tans, and the hookup culture rules the scene. Name DJ's pull down $40K a night to play a pre-mixed set on their laptops. The day for the club kids is sleep in, go to the pool, nap, maybe a little poker or sportsbook for the guys while the ladies go to the...

Get around. I want to see more of Vegas this time, not just the west side of the Strip. Being I'm there 4 full days, the plan is thus: Night 1: Getting in at around 10p on the 23rd, off quickly to drop my bag at Flamingo then probably hit up the Cos (Cosmopolitan, not Bill Cosby) as per usual and maybe just run around on the center Strip a bit. Not going to gamble much at all this night as it's just kinda the "bonus night" and the real crazy begins the next day, though I'm sure many a chilled Belvedere will be had that night. Day 1, Xmas Eve: This will be a bit of a "getting re-acquainted with the Strip" day. I need to check out of Flamingo and make my way south slowly, hitting up Monte Carlo (pick up myVegas drink voucher), NYNY (uh, pick up bigger myVegas drink voucher) and finally Mandalay to check in for 3 nights and to once again pick a myVegas voucher, this time for an appetizer at MiX. Probably just dick around a bit on the way to MB th...

Not much going on Vegas-wise. Or me-wise. I'm still 2+ months away from the last '14 trip and the rabid excitement has yet to set in. I've actually been spending a good bit of time out here in SF as I now have my weekends back, so pretty much every Saturday I'm going out and at least trying to have something resembling a life here. Still the Invisible Man for the most part when it comes to the ladies. I've chubbed up quite a bit since the last trip (over 250 now) so any remaining sex appeal my old ass had is pretty much toast now. Not a big market out there for 45 year old bald fat guys, it seems. It's still fun to go out, though. Don't really give a fuck if I get laid anymore, anyway. I take care of myself far better than any woman has ever been able to. It's just nice to feel like I'm still in the chase, and I really haven't since hooking up in Vegas over Xmas last year. Vegas Xmas again this year may be the last chance I'll ...

Found an interesting little nook in the Mlife consumer site called "Tax Info". Basically it's a breakdown of how much you've won, or in my case lost, at all the various MGM casinos. For all quarters of 2014, which is 2 full trips, I'm down a total of $1688 and change. Being that I did pretty well in the July trip slots-wise, that means I pretty much took a bath in March. Most of the casinos are pretty consistent, have lost between $2-300 at all the casinos I tend to spend much time at, MC, NYNY, Luxor. Lost a little at MGM but I'm rarely ever in there. Mirage was only $38 down despite my gambling heavily there the last two days I was in town in July, which makes sense as I did pretty well in there. Where I took a beating this year thus far is Bellagio. I've been trying to get noticed by their comp program there by spending money, and boy have I, to the tune of a little over $600 lost just in two trips.  They haven't sent me so much as a ...

http://www.vegastripping.com/features/feature.php?feature_id=246&page=1 Think this post from the often annoying but usually correct vegastripping.com seems to say it all. The place looks like an unfinished warehouse. I can't for the life of me understand why a place that's trying to be posh/hip wouldn't spring for fucking ceiling tiles. Floor-20 ft looks colorful and retro-modern, fitting the "boutique" feel they're going for, but then above that it becomes fucking Blade Runner, and not in a good way. I'm no architect, but apparently the designer of this place isn't either. Sure, you will draw in crowds in the first few months b/c "ooh, shiny new thing!", but after that you have to have some hook to get people to come back. The Cosmo truly IS hip/posh/retro chic, it has been since opening, it doesn't have to put on airs. It's a destination because it's beautiful and decadent and is full of beautiful and decadent peo...

Next up: Xmas in Vegas. Flight and room booked, I'm staying at Mandalay Bay. 4 nights, 3 days. All nights comped, and $100 of resort credit and $50 of Freeplay. One of the better offers I've gotten this year. Doing the fly in the night before thing again and will be there the night of the 23rd through the afternoon of the 27th. Will have plenty of time to save up for this one, will start in October and have around $4500 like last time. This will technically be the first stay at Mandalay, I stayed at THEhotel once last year but this will be the first time at Mandalay proper. Its a little far away from everything but with the tram from MB to Excalibur it shouldn't be too big of a deal getting around. I had a great time last Xmas in Vegas, the crowds are smaller over the holiday and I'll be getting out early enough to not see the real ramp up to the NYE bropocalypse. May stay an extra night again this time but I'm not likely to plan it ahead of time unless ...

2nd trip of 2014 done. The flight in was delayed (Southwest screwing the pooch on this trip will be a theme) first by 45 minutes, then by over an hour. As a result I didn't even get into town until one in the morning. Dropped off the bag, had one at Nine Fine and headed out. Hit a bar at Aria on the way to the Cosmo. The "stay up all the first night" thing worked out as planned, no real issues getting through the night. Spent a good part of the evening at Cosmo and then worked my way back to NYNY and was able to check in early by asking the casino host there to arrange it. Was in room by 11a-ish and asleep by noon. Probably will do this going forward to squeeze in an extra night on trips. Saturday evening, after 3 (4?) shots on the way, got to PH and the Soundgarden/NIN show. Both bands were great. SG sounded better than I thought they would, and NIN was typically amazing. The Axis venue had good acoustics and the light show from NIN was awesome. So glad I was able ...

...the night before Vegas, and all through the - oh never mind. The 7-day work stretch is done, the laundry is done, I'm all groomed up, it's time for 5 nights/4 days in a little town called Paradise. The above photo will be the primary haunt starting tomorrow at around midnight, from NYNY to Bellagio. And of course a little Planet Hollywood action for NIN/Soundgarden. Will be finalizing the Vegas playlist tonight, have a pretty tight 35-song group on tap right now. Some NIN, some Soundgarden, some Sinatra (of course), and even some (yes) Justin Timberlake. Gotta stay up super late tonight so I can sleep the bulk of the day tomorrow and be nice and slept up for going overnight tomorrow night. Stay up til 5a or so, wake up around 9a to go get the last cash out of the bank, back to sleep hopefully until around 6p then it's off to the airport and wheels down around 11:30p. Kinda of have a relaxed hype going for this one, it's becoming a bit routine for me ...

On most of my trips to Vegas, I've taken along "enhancements". Generally blow. One time molly and another time Oxycodone. But generally blow. I don't do a lot of drugs in life anymore...I had a decent weed habit going for a while but I never really got over the feeling of paranoia it causes (or the amplification of my natural paranoia it causes) and I got out of it. For me it's the kind of drug that you have to have your own house to do comfortably. Never gotten high in Vegas, wouldn't want to. It's not a social drug for me. I had a decent little E/molly habit going for about a year when I was living in San Jose and coming up to the City every weekend. THAT is a fun drug, and tailor made for Vegas. I had a supplier that had really good, pure shit that just made you feel like dancing and fucking. That connection dried up after I moved and I only tried it again last year on the THEhotel trip in October. This was some very different shit...it did...

1 week from the moment I write this post I will be on the ground in Vegas and probably already a couple drinks in at the first bar.  Nine Fine at NYNY, probably, as I will be heading there first to drop off my bag before starting the all-nighter bonus night. Going to try to avoid doing much gambling on night one so as not to cut into the funds too much on the first night of a 5-night trip. Just going to wander that first night, eat, drink, and soak in being back at the one place that feels like home for me. At least the one place I'd rather be more than anywhere else, (when I have cash to blow). I'm sure I'll end up at the Cosmo Friday night; have a history of being able to spend a whole night going from 24-hour bar to 24-hour bar in there. Nothing like the Cosmopolitan on a weekend night, the vibe is like no other in Vegas, and Vegas is a town that is not hurting for vibes. I've been trying to contact casino hosts to set up an early check-in Saturday s...

I've never been what could be called a disciplined person. I pretty much have always had minimal impulse control when it comes to, well, basically anything. For most of my adult life I have lived paycheck to paycheck and have been able to save money only when putting it into a 401k where I can't touch it. This resulted in a lot of having $8 left in a bank account with a week to go before payday. I would dig and scrounge and sell stuff to make it by. I'm not sure how I got by some weeks. It's been the same for my eating and drinking habits, if I wanted to eat something I ate it, and as much of it as I wanted. If I wanted to get drunk on cheapo beer I did, without thinking about consequences, money or health-wise. These practices led (along with some fucked up genes) to having a heart attack at the age of 40. I guess I can only consider my self lucky that I don't have a passion for clothes or shoes or cars, as that would have made life even harder. I would...

I've had terrible eating habits in Vegas. LV is pretty universally recognized as one of the true meccas of great food in the world. You can get anything from a $3 slice to an elegant world-class meal at Joel Robuchon at upwards of $1K  (that better be some DAMN fine French food, Joel). There are restaurants, pubs, cafes, brasseries, burger joints, and, yes, a food court or 12. I've been to Vegas 8 going on 9 times now, and I can count the quality meals I've sat down for there on one (mangled) hand. I've had great steaks at Gallagher's Steakhouse at NYNY over Xmas last year, and surprisingly at the Harley Davidson Cafe of all places on my first trip. I had a good, if under-cooked and overpriced filet at Red Square at Mandalay Bay. Don't think I would go back there, pretty sure I'm not their target audience as the boom-chik boom-chik music was WAY too loud and the place felt more like a nightclub, though I went in there at 6p. The Henry at Cosmopolitan...

I'm addicted to Vegas. In my life I've had most of the usual "guy" passions and vices; I went through the heavy metal phase, the Bruce Lee phase, I lusted after fast cars for a while and I HAD a fast motorcycle for a while. I've had passionate love affairs with playing tennis and golf at earlier periods in my life. I've been a devoted SF Giants fan since I moved to the Bay Area in 1985. I had my weed phase and a mostly short and very choppy coke phase and I've always loved attaining a good liquor buzz. I went through a couple year-long obsession with going out on weekends in San Francisco when I had not yet moved to the City. I had a streak of over a year in which I went to SF every weekend, usually getting a cheap hotel room and riding Caltrain up from the San Jose area. Pretty much just left all my friends and a fairly serious GF down there in the dust and rode that obsession until I ended up moving here. While the other guys I worked with were ...

News and musings as I'm a little over a month away from my 7/18 trip. Got a pretty good fever going for this one (as always). Adding the extra day and night will make it easily the longest trip I've done to Vegas. The first trip, over 4 years ago now (2/11) was a night and a day. I was in and out in a flash, I flew in on a Friday night about 10:30, had the one full day Saturday, then flew out mid-day Sunday. Not sure how I even had the time to get hooked on the place. I remember feeling sensory overloaded by the time I left, it was so out of the experience I had had for decades of sleepy Bay Area towns with nothing like the action of Vegas. It was almost another year before I went back again, and that trip hooked me. It's been 6 trips in 2 years since and I'm officially a junkie. This trip will be 5 nights, 4 days. I make a habit now (unlike the first couple trips) of having at least $1K per day of blowable cash. That's drinking, eating, and slots. I've h...

Vegas it is a changin', and not, in my opinion, for the the better. As I've stated here before, I go to Vegas mainly for the “Vegas-ness” of the place. I haven't done a ton of traveling, but from what I've seen Vegas is unlike any other city in the US. It traditionally was built around adult pleasure, a sort or slackening of the rules of normal US cities. You can smoke anywhere. You can drink anywhere. You can gamble anywhere. Normal moral codes are relaxed or done away with altogether. Hedonism, sloth, a sense of adventure and even a tinge of potential danger are encouraged and hinted at. You can find all these elements in other American cities, but not all in one place, and not as the established norm. You can GO to a seedy local strip club, you can GO to the one halfway decent non-chain restaurant in town, you can GO to an Indian Casino 20 miles out of town to gamble, you can hope a decent concert or show are coming to your town or the one across the way. Or y...

So, I DL'ed and played the MGM MyVegas Android and iOS game last week. I was...not impressed. The game itself is actually pretty engaging, it keeps you interested and you can fairly quickly advance to other slot-style games (some of them MGM themed) so you don't feel stagnated on one game. The graphics and especially the sound effects are very Vegas-esque, you feel a bit like you are playing a genuine slot machine, and you do feel genuine excitement as the reels spin. It's in the chips system and rewards that the game falls flat. You get a small kitty to begin with and winning at the start is pretty easy, I got from around 500 chips to over 40,000 on the first day, only to lose it ALL on the next day. I DL'ed the game separately on my Nexus 5 and my iPad Air, and both times the pattern was the same. Build you up, give you the illusion that the game will be easy then cut you down to size rather quickly. Accumulating chips allows you to continue playing and gaini...

So the plan on this trip is simple, and two-pronged. 1) See Nine Inch Nails and Soundgarden. 2) Get to Mlife Platinum. NIN have become one of my top 3 bands over the last few years as I've belatedly discovered a lot of their back catalog. They are now in the Cocteau Twins/Radiohead level pantheon of All Time Favorites. I have also never seen them live. They appear, from the hundreds of YouTube vids I've watched, to be an amazing live band. Soundgarden too is among my top 20 or so best bands, especially for the album they'll be pushing, a re-issue of Superunknown. Limo Wreck is an amazing tune and I can't wait to see it live. That dual-headlining show is Saturday night and should be amazing. Then there's the matter of Mlife. Gotta hand it to MGM, they have sucked my ass in with this rewards program. I'm at just about the midway point between Gold, where I am now, and Platinum, where I want to be. I need 200,000 points to get to Platinum, I am at 92,000+....