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

Oh fuck it. I am going to Vegas for my birthday. Most likely. I have booked air flying in late on Tuesday the 23rd and flying out early on Saturday the 27th on my birthday week. I took advantage of a discount voucher I got from Alaska for the cancelled flight a couple weeks ago (it pays to complain) to book round trip non-stop for $43. Bit of an early fly-out on Saturday morning but I will just have to hit the rack relatively early Friday night to get 5 hours or so, or, more likely, just power through and sleep once I'm back here. Got a great rate at Hard Rock in an HRH Suite so I'm going to be living the suite life on my 50th. Wanted to go suite on this trip because this is obviously a milestone birthday, and hey you only turn 50 once. Anything else this nice directly on strip would have been hundreds more. All in for the 4 nights with resort fee is less than $500. I can cancel any time so if comp nights drop in before go time I can re-book, but TBH unless CET c...

The last trip of the year and the last trip I have planned is done. May be the last trip for a while so might as well do a blow by blow. Long, boring post ahead. Day one, had a flight cancellation literally 12 hours before the flight was supposed to depart (thanks Alaska) so didn't end up on the ground until 11a. Jumped in the limo and over to Vdara. Too early to check in so sat and had a few mimosas at the little bar there. Vdara kind of a nothing resort but I guess that's sorta the point. Got checked in after noon and up to the room. Calling this thing a suite is a stretch, even with the little kitchenette, but it was fine I guess. Sort of a vague Asian theme. Dark wood and frosted glass. Nice enough but showing its age. Still a very nice room for the price of free. Got settled in then headed over to get some food at the Henry. Had their good eggs bene. Then hit Vesper for a couple, and decided to go back to the room to attempt a nap. I had been and still was fighting ...

Last update on this wunderblag before the Last Vegas Ever of the year. Bout to go live like a Caesar for the next week. All the prep is done. Pulled out the money, am most of the way packed, all the arrangements are made and I'm ready to light this candle and see what trouble I can get into in the desert. Unfortunately I've caught a low-level sick right before the trip, because of course I have, but it doesn't seem to be anything too serious and shouldn't impact the proceedings much if at all. I get these little snotty head colds a few times a year, and it rarely gets much worse than that. I've still got a day and a half to rest and relax it away as much as possible. Loading up on fluids, slept a bunch last night and will try to do so strategically before the 3a wake up call Sunday morning. Oh man, why did I book a 7a flight.   UPDATE Alaska cancelled another flight on me like the last trip so now I don't get in until 11a. Ugh. Guess it gives me the cha...

The last of the pre-Vegas funds came in, so financially it's all but an ark lark. I will hit $5300 on the number. So that will be $1K on the first day to get things off on a good foot, hopefully rolling some of that forward to the next day, then $900/day for the 3 other "rage" days and $800/day for the 2 "cool down" days. It would be nice if I came back with some of that (or Jeebus forbid if for once I came back UP) but I'm not pulling any punches on this trip and if it all goes in the service of a great trip then it'll all go. Again this leaves me with $18000 worst case scenario in the bank when I'm back from Vegas, plus the $1800/month coming in from UI for another few months. I should get something back from my tax refund in February, too, though how much with all the pension cash outs I don't know. In any case, I'm comfortable with that being the cushion once I'm back and can settle into the job hunt. I still have something ...

T-minus 7 days to Vegasocity. I'm going to just remind myself, here in print for all (me) to see: Don't forget to have fun. I have a lot of the Vegas thing down. After 25 trips, I know the spots I like to hit, I can navigate around the strip efficiently despite the throngs of tourists, mainly by knowing where the bottlenecks for foot traffic are and how to avoid them. In damn near every resort I know what the bar scene is, what's my "style" and what to avoid, and in some cases can pick right up with bartenders I've spoken to dozens of times. I KNOW how to do Vegas. But sometimes I can get too regimented. I feel like I have to be in all places at once, or wish I was. I feel like I have to "make all my stops" and hit 10-20 places a day. Sometimes in that mad rush to do and see as much as possible in a Vegas day I sometimes forget to do the thing that's supposed to be the whole reason for the trip. Have fucking fun.  I'm going to try ...

The final countdown to Vegalicious December 2018. This time 2 weeks from today I'll be well into day one on the strip. All on track, nothing much new to report. The Macy's pension check that I thought wasn't going to make it before the trip, did, so that covers about 2/3 of the trip expenses, which is nice. It's even nicer because before a couple months ago I didn't even know I HAD a pension with Macy's. So I'm going to just take a full $5300 with me on the trip. $1000 for the first day to get things off on a good foot then either $900 or $800/day the other 5 days. Should be more than enough if things go as usual. The plan is set and very good, didn't go overboard on shows or reservations this year like did last year. One show, a couple food reservations and just general Vegas awesomeness for the rest of the time. May pick up one more show for Thursday if a very good rate opens up on one of the ones I want to see, but not going to be disappointed ...

To answer this post's question... I don't know. Making the decision to quit a stable, long term job with a 401k plan and good benefits may seem like a questionable one. It may end up being so. I don't have the answers yet. But I do know that the decision came down to some simple math based on some simple questions:  -Was I happy? No. -Was the situation likely to improve? No. -Was being safe and secure even in a job I was growing to hate and resent worth it? No. So here I am. About to turn 50 and with a skill set that doesn't necessarily set the current world on fire. What I do have is a breadth of experience, in several different industries, but for the most part it's been as a manager of people in some form or another. There will always be a market for that. I'd prefer to find something working more or less solo, but running a small team is something I'd feel comfortable with. I have no real preference on industry, I j...

All locked in for Vegas December-o-rama. Black Friday/Cyber Monday have come and gone, nothing changed in the plans so what I have booked now is the truth. Very happy with the rooms, especially Caesars. The same nights have been unavailable since the night I booked it so I got in when the getting was good, apparently. Took a flyer at getting a matching offer from a host at Cosmo, but he could only do 3 nights for me and 2 nights at casino rate so I'm sticking with the Palace. The only concession I made to Black Friday was picking up one new hoodie to take to town. Since the weather will likely be on the chill side, especially at night, I needed maybe one more suitable warm thing. Got a great looking SF Giants hoodie that's still dressy enough to not be frowned upon in the swanky bars. Had to do a warranty replace on my Pixel 2 XL too, USB-C port was bugging out so I'll have a fresh new phone to take along. Just the one show during the stay, LOVE again, nothing else...

Real real countdown mode has begun. 1 month to Vegas-ness. Finally locked down the hotels. Doing 1 night at Vdara in a Studio Suite on a comped night through myVegas, and the other 5 nights comped on a repeat of last year's resort, in a (wait for it) Laurel Collection Augustus Tower Strip View room (whew!) at Caesars. Thought about doing the 6th night at Caesars but it would have added $185 to the proceedings so it's worth it to do the move on the 2nd day. I've wanted to stay at Vdara anyway and the comped night makes it a no-brainer. Right now a little inconvenience to save a couple hundy is a good thing. It's been an odyssey on the "where" on this trip but I'm glad to have it locked up. So all 6 nights comped, and I don't think I could have found a better pair of rooms to do it in being the low-rolling fool I am. Very excited about the Augustus room, it should have a pretty sick view. Next week during the Black Friday sale period there may ...

Freebies/comps/discounts for the last trip of the year. One of the best hauls all time. -Five comped nights at Caesars in an Augustus Strip View room - $980 saved. -One night comped via myVegas at Vdara in a Studio Suite, savings of $95. -Two long ago purchased Restaurant.com $25 off of $50 certs, may or may not use, potential $50 off. -myVegas reward for a food voucher at Nine Fine in NYNY, $21 value. -myVegas reward for a free burger at Park MGM a $12 value. -Beatles LOVE dress rehearsal ticket at $35, regular price $145 saving $110. = $1268 in value. The 5 comped nights at C.P. alone makes it one of the best 'bies ever, for a no-roller like me I certainly appreciate them, especially on their best standard room. Two years in a row at the beautiful Palace. We'll see if we can add a show and maybe another R.com cert when Holiday deals come around. Will update if they fall in. Total overhead (non-fun) on this trip then works out to: -Round trip flight - $97 ...

It has all come down to this, the last Vegas of 2018. Pretty good Vegas year thus far, nothing Earth-shattering but 3 solid trips and I'm ready to close out the proceedings with one last blowout. 6 nights in the desert await, so time to plan. This post will likely update as I get closer. Day One: Early-ish flight in, if all goes to plan will be on the ground by 11:00a Sunday morning. Doing the Bell Limo thing again, probably straight over to Vdara to drop the bag at the bell desk, then having done the pre-check-in thing will try to find someplace around there to have brunch while waiting for my keys. Maybe something like The Henry at Cosmo, don't want to roam too far from from the room early that day as owing to the early wake up call, after I check in I may well be in need of a napper. After successful check-in and a probable nap, time to get cleaned up and head out for night one in town. No real set plan in terms of destinations, going to try to ease into this ...

Settling into week 2 of Unemployment "Woo!", Electric Boogaloo. Running out of things to do already. My life has always been very simple, even in the busiest of times. I have no significant other, no kids, no friends, no real hobbies, no real interests that don't involve sitting in front of a computer screen, so taking 40 hours of activity away from an already light schedule is a challenge. Not complaining, this is what I wanted and needed, but it's already getting boring. I wanted to join a gym, but the only one around here would be $60/month and I don't really want to add any extra expenses right now, for obvious reasons. I have been walking a bit, trying to do a couple miles at least 3 times a week and hopefully more if the knee holds up. Ideally I'd love to get back into tennis again but then there's the aforementioned knee and the expense of rackets and shoes and balls and such. Don't see it happening. Golf, all the same things, and even mo...

*Warning - not much of a Vegas post* Whelp, the time has come. I've been bellyaching about my dead-end and degrading job for a year now, and I finally have done something about it. I quit. Deep. Fucking. Sigh. I gave my 2 weeks originally after accepting a job with a tech firm by the airport, but after weighing all the ups/downs I decided to bail from it. Commute, less money, strange initial working environment (apparently the guy whose job I was supposed to be taking was going to train me?), parking issues here in the City and other factors. One of the biggest being I just need a god damn break. I've been working non-stop for 10 years and I just need some time to clear my head and get some happy back. This last job was really a soul vampire for the last couple years. Yeah I'm stepping into uncertainty and don't have a guaranteed job lined up but I've never had much trouble in my life finding a job and in this job market I don't expect much ...

Been trying to lock down the Xmas trip, and, as a side note (as far as this blog's concerned), life. Originally had 5 nights booked at Mandalay Bay for less than $60/night. Then comps opened up a bit and booked 3 nights at Tropicana (meh) and 2 nights at MGM (nice). Then a gaggle of nights became available through Total Rewards for some reason to stay at the Linq. Not wanting to resort-hop, I jumped on those. Now last night Mlife counters with 2 free nights and $15/night rooms for Mandalay Bay, which was the place I wanted to stay in the first place, so I dumped Linq and re-booked MB. It would be about $100 more in total but MB is 3 times the resort the Linq is. Now today after cancelling the Linq reservation, 5 free nights at Bally's in the newly renovated Resort room have opened up. THAT'S a dilemma. Bally's is not half the resort MB is, but having stayed there the new rooms are quite nice and the location of Bally's is far better than Mandalay. More and mo...

3rd trip of the year done and dusted. Overall a good trip. Some ups and downs. Flight was about a half hour late getting in, jumped in cab and straight to MGM. Had used the mobile app to check in and I was told it would allow my phone to be the room key but after getting all the way up there of course it didn't work so had to come back down and use the kiosk to get a real one. Once up there, room was on the 27th floor. Room was nice, I'd say similar to the Mirage room I stayed in last year. Tub/shower combo and smallish bathroom but otherwise it was fine. View was the above pic, not bad. Once I got in it was out to drink, stopped first at the Losers country bar in MGM, then Rock & Reilly and made my way upstrip to the Linq area. Mainly just farted around, was trying not to spend much money or gamble on the first night. Stuck mainly to beer. Packed it in relatively early, prob was out by 1a max. Good nights sleep, then day 2, first full day, sorta was all over the pl...

Tomorrow. The work week is done, the bag is half packed, the money is out of the bank, I'm checked into my flight and pre-checked into my room. This time tomorrow night I'll be having a drinky (or seven) on the strip. Not much else to say, just wanted to check in one last time. Have a good plan for this one and feel like it should be a fine trip. Staying in two places I haven't stayed before so that should be a good exploration experience if nothing else, though I certainly know my way around the casino floor of MGM at this point. I've stayed at Palms proper in the past but this is Palms Place, the more upscale side and apparently Palms itself is very much renovated since I was last there end of 2015. Weather will be toasty for the first couple days - 109° tomorrow, 105° Monday and at least a hundy the rest of the trip but it's Vegas in August so it is what it is. Monorail, shuttles and taxis as much as possible to keep from melting. I get to use my new W...

T-minus one week to trip #3 of 2018. More or less all set for this one. The money is going to be a little less than normal for a 4 1/2 day trip for me but really only by about a hundy. $500 for the short first night, will take it easy there then will have an average of a few bucks less than $800/day for the 4 full days. Should be more than enough with the way I gamble now, which is minimal. I may have to make a trek over to BoW to pull out the last $1K one day of the trip, as I may or may not be paid on the Friday before, it will depend on how the payroll rollout happens. I'll have enough to get through the first 3 days of the trip for sure and if I have to go to the bank I can do it before I cab to Palms on that Wednesday morning to make it a combo plate and save time. I've more or less resolved to stop throwing money away on non-skill slots, and to try to grind out some positive numbers on video poker. I'm using a simple online trainer and have gotten pretty good...

Two weeks to Vegas time. Going a slight bit batty in the pre-trip rut. Haven't gone out in the City in weeks, and have 2 more weekends of boredom to endure before I can be released into an orgasm of fun, craziness and debauchery. Which for me means eating a lot, drinking even more, talking with people  bartenders who don't care about me and losing money to machines that care even less. My Vegas trips in a nutshell! Under the "life in general" heading, work is a rut, nothing interesting going on for me and the one big project I had that could have elevated my standing there looks like it's on permanent hold. It's a dead end now, but the benefits of having been in a place for 6 years (matching 401k, dental/vision/FSA, 3 weeks of paid PTO) makes the inertia of not leaving hard to resist. I'm half-assedly looking for something else but it would take a pretty perfect situation for me to leave. Close to home, more money and something I more or less know...

No, this post is not about the lame Cirque ripoff at the Wynn. It's my one pie-in-the-sky post. I don't allow myself to dream too much in my life. I try to be in the present and plan for the near future and I don't delve into hypotheticals much. I don't generally think it's a very productive use of my time. But sometimes I indulge myself, and this is one of those times. LET'S JUST SAY, that in some drunken fever dream I sit down in front of a progressive Wheel of Fortune machine some night while in town. Something I would never do unless severely hammered, because the odds on those machines are beyond crap. And let's just say I, I don't know, hit a $12M jackpot. Hypothetically. What then? Well first you pay the man. I would want to take a lump sum if an option, so lopping off all the IRS shit say I'm left with, like $6.8M, clear and in the bank account. Then the decisions start. The first obvious decision is to quit my job. Via e...

Oh, so many years ago I was someone who gambled at MGM resorts. It was a glorious time. Slot machines weren't set to "immediately steal $100" mode, you could sit at a machine and sip worse-than-well cocktails while slowly losing your bankroll, and once in a while, just once in a while, you might walk away from a machine with MORE money than when you walked up to it. Those were such carefree, innocent times. It was so long ago I'm not sure I even have a clear memory (2014). Whimsy aside, the comps resulting from that play were healthy and helped finance many, many a Vegas trip for the FYMYAWF'er. 3 comped nights at the Luxors or NYNYs or even the Mandalay Bays of the world were common, and were often accompanied by resort credit and Freeplay into the hundreds. This was through MGM's loyalty club Mlife, and it did result in my being very loyal to them. For several years starting in 2013, 12 out of 13 trips I made were at least partially at MGM resorts, on...