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

Back. Another weird trip in a weird year. Despite a couple events it wasn't really very eventful, so rather than the day by day blow by blow I will just summarize some of the themes. Flights: Both fine and on time, Alaska doing a good job this time. Had no seat mates either trip and all smooth. SF airport still dead on the out, LAS a little livelier on the back in. Pretty surreal flying over the fires in CA on the out flight. Rooms: Cosmo mostly fine this time for the 6 nights, had the good Terrace Studio, this time with the south facing view, which was fine. I did have to change rooms on check in, they initially put me right next to the elevators and right above the pool. No. Had to wait an hour to get into the better room, but other than that the stay was good. Room was quiet and housekeeping service was mostly on point. Got late checkout free for the fly out day which was nice. Better experience than in June for sure. Gambling: Up and down, mostly down. I hit 1K on VP on the ...

In 24 hours I'll be on the plane to Vegas. The work is done for the week. The OOO reply is set on work email. The money's out of the bank, the laundry's done, the bag's 80% packed, I'm checked into my flight, yadda yadda. Nothing left to do but shave my balls, get a good nights sleep, drive to work, park the car, Uber to the airport and hopefully take off on time to Paradise, NV. What's in store in Paradise? Dunno. I'm going to try to be like this chick (dude?) at Venetian in the pic above. Roll with the no-bar punches, try to stay positive, and be zen about the experience, whatever it may be. It's my choice not to delay the trip for lack of bars, so it's also my choice how I approach it. As previously stated, maybe getting out of my bars-all-day comfort zone will be a positive. Vegas without bar tops is still (mostly) Vegas, so let's keep an open mind. So that's it then. I'll check in on the far side in a week or so.

Thanks Governor Sisolak. Thanks. Your continued, ridiculous closure of all bars in Clark county has forced me to this. You've forced me to spend $50 on a flask. Instead of spending wild amounts of cash in your state's many fine drinking establishments, I'm compelled to drink luke-warm vodka out of a flask. Rather than openly enjoying beautiful cocktails on sanitized bar tops, I will now be reaching next my ass to sneak furtive swigs from a hip flask, that I really don't want to have to carry. Great leadership, Guv. The lawsuit that bar owners raised in NV to overturn Sisolak's closure was spanked down by a judge, so there's no more hope that I will see a bar top Saturday, or for any day of the trip. So the flask is a cope. If I have trouble finding spots to get my drink on this will hopefully bridge the gaps. It's a nice flask, because why cheap out on such a thing. I couldn't see paying $75+ for an English pewter flask, but this one is all-titanium and...

🎼The fiiiiiinal countdoooooooooown 🎼 All is ready, mostly. The last pre-Vegas check came in, will have actually a little more than the planned. If I'm frugal this week I can have $5200 cash avail, so that's $900/day for the 5 full days, and $700 for the shorter first Saturday. More than enough. I won't be touching the Mlife CC between now and the trip which is sitting on a $400 balance so that's another $4300 spendable (after Cosmo charges) on that card for all the food/bev. Won't come anywhere near that but good to know I won't have to worry. Timing is good this trip as I'll have another check dropping the day I come back, so I won't be broke even if I do blow through the whole wad. Added another food reservation for Scarpetta at the Cosmo, along with Delmonico and Yellowtail that makes 3 of the nights sorted for food. Have $71 of Identity resort credit going into the trip, and will be tacking on more in the 3 days before the reservation so as it stan...

Less than 2 weeks now to the...I don't know what. This is likely to be the strangest trip I've taken in 30+ of them. Last trip was awfully strange, with the deserted strip, minimal resorts and general dead vibe, but at least I had enough bars to fall back on to have a 70% normal trip. This one won't even be that, barring some last minute miracle of bar-opening-ness from our buddy Gov. Sisolak. Not holding my breath. In any case I'm pretty much good to go. The wardrobe is set, have a couple new polos to improve the sartorial side. Money will be on point, will have probably $5100 cash and around $4K on the Mlife card to see me through 5 3/4 days. That's $850/day cash which really only needs to pay for gambling, taxis and greasing palms. The food, drink and whatever else is on the card. It was a pretty painless save as I still had over $3K in the bank when I came back from the last trip. Hopefully another stim check will bolster that later this month or next if the pol...

A little over 2 weeks away from Vegas trip #2 of the year. Meh.  I'm finding it hard to get really excited about this one, as I've detailed in prior posts. So what's needed is a plan, and an attitude adjustment. And also a plan to achieve an attitude adjustment. As a result, this is not a day by day plan post as per usual. If the state of Vegas remains as it is by the time I arrive on the 22nd, I will have to go about finding my joy in different ways this time. No sitting at bars, which takes up about 70% of a normal Vegas trip for me. So how to spread that 7/10's of my normal trip out amongst the other things that will be available. Certainly there will be many, many appetizers. That being the case because in order for me to get my drink on, I will have to be seated in restaurants and lounges and be served food in order to be served alcohol. So it follows that this will be a foodie trip. I always try to eat 5 steps above my sad diet at home while in Vegas, but now the ...

Everything is fucked. His Excellency Governor Steve Sisolak of Nevada, whom Nevadans should vote out of office at the earliest possible opportunity, has decreed that bars in Nevada will remain closed "for the time being". MY time, in Vegas, being less than 3 weeks from now. So unspeakably pissed. Continue punishing one aspect of the resort business while other parts just as culpable in the number of cases skate by with no restrictions. Pissed not only for my own plight, but all the bar owners and tenders who are now in no-man's-land too. How do you plan for anything as a tourist or owner or employee if there's no timeline?  I swear I want to cancel the trip at this point just to spite this dumb ass and not give his state any of my hard earned money. The thought of going to town and spending up to $5K with the guts of the trip (for me) torn out makes me feel like I'm wasting money. In a pandemic. I had more or less decided to go regardless, but right now my go-no g...

Another "how much I saved over the savages who have to pay full price to go to Vegas" post. -6-night stay in a Terrace Studio at the Cosmopolitan, 1 comped night, 5 nights no resort fee and a special rate: $447.85, would be $1587.33 if booked today with no deal or status. Savings of $1139. Nice. -Round trip flight SFO-LAS: $0, banked funds and flight credit from previous Alaska adventures. Would be $96 normally. Savings of, wait, let me do the math...$96. -Mlife Express comps available when I get to town: $104. -Identity (Cosmo) resort credit when I get to town: $71. Total saved over filthy non-comped plebeians: $1410. One of the better hauls in recent times. I haven't had more than one comped night at a stretch over the last 3 stays as I've been primarily at the Cosmo, but taking advantage of the two no-resort fee deals and my Sterling comped night has netted some significant savings and made it a defacto comped stay, at least over what a normie would pay. If you tot...