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 ...