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

Last check in before go. It's been a strange lead up with the new job and all, but still have managed to work up a decent hype. A pretty standard trip after all the "ballerism" of the last one - staying in a standard room and flying commercial, but it's a good room and a good seat, FWIW. Back in the warm embrace of Mandalay Bay after flirting with Fontainebleau...in the end saving more than $700 over the Bleau was just too good a deal. 2nd time I've chickened out on FB, I swear I will stay there sometime. The money's out of the bank, full $6K for the 5+ days. As expected, had to float a little bit of my MGM CC debt to make it fly but unless I have another June of '23 trip (cursed be thy name), I should be able to get it all paid off in July and get back to normal. I'd love to come back more or less even so I could squeeze in a September trip but I'm not looking ahead, $6K is the budget and as long as I come back with enough to pay rent I'm not ...

Less than a week now. In keeping with tradition, a plan post. Spoiler alert: there's not much of a plan. Saturday: Dropping the car off at the parking lot at around 12p, then over to the airport. Flight's at 4p so I can hit a bar/resto to have a light snack and a couple beers, then hopefully be on time for the departure. If all goes well I'm on the ground by 5:30p, cab to MB, checked in and bag dumped by 6:30p. Then it's out to the bars. May start at MB spots like Foundation or maybe Skyfall, then may branch out a bit to the south/center strip. Don't think I'll get too adventurous on night one but I will have a full day's spend and should be slept up so no limitations there. A bit of gambling but probably nothing crazy. An ease into it night most likely. Sunday: The first full day. Thinking it'll probably be pretty mellow in town as it's the weekend before a holiday. Good for me as there should be plenty of open bar seats. May sleep in a bit then hea...