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

I make a decent amount of money. I also have almost no debt and very few bills. Why do I feel vaguely guilty about that? All my adult life I've been effectively poor. I bounced around from bad job to bad job, living paycheck to paycheck and rarely living within my means. If I wanted stuff, I would get credit cards to "afford" them. This led to bad debt and some bad financial decisions. For 25 years I was in a cycle of debt and low income and worry and stress and collections and blah blah. About the time I took my current job, things started to turn around. I was now making a decent wage and have a stable position. I started getting rid of all the bad credit card and loan debt. I got rid of my car. I did some consolidation. I started living within my means for the first time in my adult life. I dug out and no longer stay up at night wondering how I'm going to make rent or pay off one CC bill while going delinquent on another. I am, no doubt, in the best financ...

I had a revelation this week. I'm white trash. It dawned on me that the reason I feel totally comfortable at resorts like NYNY and Excalibur, and feel vaguely uncomfortable at places like Aria and Bellagio, is that I'm not in the nicer joint's league. I'm not a retired insurance salesman wearing Docker's shorts and a polo shirt playing $5 slots at Bellagio. I'm not a hotshot startup guy at Aria sipping Pinot and discussing stock options. I'm not an Asian whale at the Wynn throwing money away on Ace of Spades and hookers. I'm a jeans and a t-shirt guy. I like beer. I like sports. I like sitting in a dark dive bar in Vegas on a hot Saturday afternoon when the rest of town is trying to squeeze into the Marquee daypool. I'm a chubby, middle-aged, casual guy who'd rather eat at Dick's Last Resort than STK. And I suddenly realize I'm OK with that. I've been spending time in places I don't really fit in at trying to somehow ...

4 nights in early September booked. You'll never guess... NYNY!!!!!! Yep. New York New York for the 6th time. Why put out a perfectly good fire, I guess. Got a comp offer from them while I was in town last week, so I booked it this morning. Really good offer for such a lowly Pearl Mlife member like me. 3 nights comped, no resort fees for the 3 comped nights, $44 rate for the 4th night, $100 resort credit and I think it'll be $75 worth of Freeplay. So in essence they're paying ME almost a hundie to stay for 4 nights. Not bad. The all-in on the flight was $115, so my overhead on this trip will be ultra-minimal. Hotel location is perfect as I'll be seeing Coldplay at the T-Mobile Arena (in a seat this time!), so it'll be an easy walk to the show. Can't believe I'm saying this, but even though I just got back 2 days ago, I'm already looking forward to this trip. My post-Vegas hangover is minimal this time, clearly. 3 months and a week of wait time...

Back from trip 2 of 2016. Fairly normal Vegas trip, as it was. Flight out was fine, JetBlue reliably on time and comfortable enough for a short trip. The TSA line was a lot longer than I normally see, but supposedly that's a thing this summer and I left myself plenty of time to get through it. Was funny watching all the idiots trying to tell TSA members their plane left in 15 minutes and being told "too fucking bad". Once on the ground in LAS the Bell limo ride went about as well as could be expected. Had to wait about 15 minutes from check in to ride out but was solo in a limo and for only $25 each way including tip it was worth it. Taxi would have been more and this way I arrived in style. Once to Aria check in there was beyond easy, I did mobile check in earlier and asked for a 12:45 check in time, wasn't expecting to actually be in the room before 3p but I got an email as soon as I walked in the front door and was in my room 5 minutes later. Total breeze. Wi...

Countdown almost done. 4 days at the lovely Aria begins Tuesday at around noon. Pretty much everything good to go. Money is pulled out of the bank, $3800 will be the final number. A little less than my usual $4K for 4 days but even with a couple beers at the airport and tipping the limo driver at LAS it's still $3700+, AND I just got a $1500 unsolicited bump in my Capitol One card credit limit, so I'm more than covered. I never go to Vegas with money as no object, but for the way I do Vegas it usually covers everything comfortably. I gamble but I don't like to lose much, so if I'm getting my ass handed to me it's off to the bars. No matter how much I drink I can't drink a thousand dollars a day. Looking at "The Plan" for this one, it IS quite the plan, I have most of my time pretty well mapped except for Friday, but that was the goal this time, to NOT be rambling up and down the Strip getting exhausted and pissed off. Aside from Wednes...

Starting to wonder if my Vegas obsession is beginning to wane. Doing another 4-trip year again, barring something dramatic happening at work or in life, but the laser-focus I had on Vegas-as-end-all-and-be-all of my vacation life is beginning to dull a bit. I still look forward to my trips, I'm certainly looking forward to next week, but I'm not as fevered as I used to be in say 2013 or 2014, where if I wasn't IN Vegas I was planning or thinking or dreaming about Vegas. Has Vegas become, dare I say, a little too routine? If there's one thing that I'm realizing about my trips is, they really aren't very relaxing. I mean, I have fun while I'm there, but it's tiring and draining too. There's a lot of walking, dealing with crowds, drinking heavily, handling logistics. I come back from a Vegas trip generally tired out and needing a couple days to decompress and get over it, which I seldom have. I'm thankful that next week I'll at least have...

Another good haul on Mlife and myVegas this trip. On paper the best yet. -1 comped room night and a $69 rate on the other 3, normally $180 X 4 so saves about $500. -$50 in Freeplay (slots) -$150 in resort credit (food/bev) -myVegas Times Square drinks credit: $50 -myVegas Public House credit: $20 =$750 saved over what a non Mlife/myVegas person would pay. That's offset by the fact that I actually AM paying for a room this time. as opposed to my normal full comp, but a little over $200 for 4 nights at Aria is a steal, and even with tax and the devil Resort Fees I come in not too much over $300. I've always said I want to start staying at the nicer MGM properties, and if I can bad gamble close to Mlife Gold again the full comp offers for the better places may start coming my way. I got a taste for the good life last Xmas staying at Cosmopolitan; I think my days of staying at NYNY or MC may be nearly over (nice as NYNY is). Add to all this the insane $100 flight I...

Flight gets in around 12:30p, I booked a "shared" limo ride to Aria, so hopefully that's seamless and at $32 round trip (plus tip) it'll save me a little dosh. Drop my bag and stake out a spot in a bar (Alibi?) and hopefully have just a couple before being able to check in. Check in around 2p hopefully (doing mobile check in), head up, freshen up; doubtful I'll need a nap as it'll be a normal night's sleep the night before, no super early wake up call this time. Then down to the casino floor, hit a bar or 5, play a few slots, see what shakes out. 6p reservations at Carbone in Aria, gotta start using up the $150 in resort credit. Then after eating my night is open. Depending on the weather I may stick around Aria until it cools down a bit. The rest of the night - no plans at all. Giants game at 7p, so there's that. Undoubtedly will spend time at the always happening Cosmopolitan, and probably shuttle between there and Aria, drinking heavily and...