Every Day Is Exactly The Same.

One more go-out weekend in the City this coming weekend, then the Big Rut starts.

Nearly 3 months of nothing. No going out, no buying anything, just saving up for 5 days in Vegas, almost 90 days in the future. It's a game I've played constantly for the past 6 years now. 3 months of saving and scrimping and having nothing to show for the time in things or experiences. it's just a big wait, a wait for a (not even a) week in the desert.

It's almost like I'm putting my life on hold for half of the year, if I'm doing (minimum) 3 trips.

In truth I'm sure I'll manage to get out at least a couple weekends of the 3 months, I'll go stir-crazy and put off a Vegas fund payment by two weeks, increasing the pain down the line for a furtive excursion on a Saturday. Usually that will be the first month (in this case October) of the save. Then reality will hit in November and there will be nothing but the Big Rut. Gotta have that $4K to blow on liters of liquor, bad gambling and too much food!

So what do I have to look forward to until then? 5 days of every day is the same tedium at work, then looking forward to a weekend sitting in front of a computer, farting about and working on my Vegas playlist for that trip. Nearly every dollar I would normally spend on entertainment will go to Vegas.

It's something I've more or less happily undertaken in the past as I was SO hyped for my trips that any hardship was worth it. It also made a difference that up until the last couple years my trips were shorter and I didn't necessarily need a $K a day to feel comfortable. Now that the trips are at least 5 nights (this one will be 6) and I don't feel OK going without the full spend it's a tougher and earlier save up.

Frankly, the math I do in my head to justify this is getting harder to compute. As nondescript trip after nondescript trip go by it's getting tougher to bear the hardship. And look, I know the people in Puerto Rico are going through actual hardship, this is about a -10 on that scale but everything in life is relative. I'm not a struggling serf coming back from a hurricane, I'm a middle-class loner in SF who wants to go get drunk on weekends.

Part of the issue is the advance booking I do. I had this trip booked in I think it was March...that doesn't give you a lot of chance to change your mind. Sure I could cancel the rooms and eat the plane fares but I DO want to go and am looking forward to it, I just don't want to be deprived for the next 3 months, because I'm whiny. Maybe the lack of comp status I have for next year will be a blessing. I do want to go somewhere, ANYWHERE else next year so not being booked 6 months in advance is probably a good thing.

Ah I don't know. I should be busy at work so maybe the time won't go by so slowly. The weekends will be tough but there will also be some holidays thrown in there the next two months that I avoid going out on anyway. I should also have a cash bonus coming in December that should help the save at the end.

As always, it'll all work out.

It will just be boring.