Finally - Vegas Is Fucking On.

Finally, our long (not very) National (personal) nightmare (mild inconvenience) is over.

I'm talking about me being able to go back to Vegas, of course. What did you think I was talking about?

The date is official  - June 4. I will arrive 2 days later, triumphantly. Gov Sisolak made the state call yesterday and all the resorts are getting signed off on their reopen plans today. A bunch of them have already announced for day one, 6/4. Cosmo of course. Wynn too. No Venetian yet, but presumably just a matter of time as they are accepting reservations for that date.

The best news to come out of the last 24 hours? Bars will part of reopening. Socially distanced, but bars. BARS.

My hopes for a more sober, relaxing vacation without liver assault are dashed. I'm gutted, really. To be sure this won't be the full-service Vegas I've become used to - many resorts will be closed. In that first week, on the MGM side it'll just be Bellagio, NYNY, and the Grand. For CET, just Caesars and Flamingo,(EDIT: Harrah's too; Carnival Court maybe in?) though good news is the Linq alley looks to be in. Yardhouse chicken strips are back on the menu. TI and a couple other strip places like the Strat and Sahara are likely to open too, but I never really go in either of them so eh.

So that's a few notable personal losses. No Mandalay Bay, which I love. No Cromwell, with Bound. No Paris for Gustav's or Bally's for Fuel, though hopefully that's independent enough as it's in the Bazaar Shops that it can open. Wouldn't be the same w/o it. No Aria for the great eateries. No Palazzo for Electra and Rosina, which will be a big loss. (EDIT: Palazzo is IN!) And it remains to be seen with the social distancing rules how hard it will be to get seats at a bar. Hopefully there will be a big, pent up demand rush that first weekend and most of the lookie-loos are out of there by Monday so I can have some space (for a lot of reasons).

But I'll take 1/3 of Vegas to no Vegas. Again, it's better than sitting on my ass eating Cheetos in my hobbit hole. The big up will be the Cosmo - per their own website they are going to be open full bore including 24hr Vesper and Chandelier. I will gamble MGM, but I will likely drink and hang Cosmo, and copiously. The fabulous Dorsey will be open at Venetian. Huge win. Certainly it looks like there will be plenty of places to get my $20 shot of Belvedere on.

Just so glad for the waiting game and the uncertainty to be over. Is it wise to be taking a trip to a place where tons of people are going to be congregating, in the middle of a pandemic? Probably not, but if staying safe means never leaving your house for the duration, frankly, at this point, I'll suspend safe for a week. So suddenly, unbelievably, I'm 10 days away from a Vegas trip.

Bring it the fuck ON.