Trash.

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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 climb some bullshit Mlife ladder to get offers to stay there. I HATE the Bellagio, why am I trying to get comped to stay there? I just stayed at Aria, and it was nice, but nothing that would make me bust my tail again on it's tight-ass slots to try to get back to. Meanwhile the one truly fun time I had on the last trip was hanging out at my home base, NYNY, in a dead bar in the afternoon just shooting the shit with the bartenders who took me as I was, not as what I was wearing.

I'm getting too old to give a shit anymore what people think of me. And strangely Vegas is the only place I still do. There's a definite hierarchy of resorts on the Strip, from the ass end of Circus Circus/Ex to the Bellagio/Palazzo/Wynn nexus. And while I have no desire again to stay in the shitty Excalibur or Luxor, that's because they're shitty, and I don't HAVE to stay there anymore. I'm also realizing I have no real desire to stay at the high end either.

NYNY is my kind of place. It's my kind of people. It's mid-range. I'm mid-range. Time to stop trying to climb a resort ladder I don't want to see the top rung of anymore.

NYNY, here I come (again).

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