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

I am by no means a wealthy person. I work as a Inventory Manager for an entertainment company. I make somewhere in the neighborhood of double the San Francisco minimum wage, which I'll let you do the research on. While SF minimum is among the highest in the country, living costs in the City are also among the highest in the country, so it all pretty much washes out. My living situation is a compromise. My rent is low, but the price I pay for having low rent is having a tiny, tiny living space. Not including a separate bathroom, I live in roughly 150 square feet of space. To contrast, the average square footage of a hotel room in Vegas is probably in the 450-500 ft range. Yeah, I live in Celine Dion's closet. It's (barely) enough for a full bed, small desk, nightstand and a bookcase. Now, the good thing about this, is that a bed, nightstand, desk and bookcase are about all that I own. When I moved here from the South Bay everything fit in a 10-foot U-haul truck. One ...

I'm in the Mlife program for MGM resorts. So far it's gotten me 3 fully comped (aside from the resort fee) resort stays and varying amounts of additional swag. I've cashed in offers to stay at Excalibur, Mandalay Bay (THEhotel) and, next, NYNY. The best one thus far was the last one, the suite at THEhotel, $125 in "resort credit" which is basically a food credit, and a little Freeplay. I was also able on the last trip to build up enough Express Comps to pay for another meal while there, so with the around $50 in play I cashed in almost $200 in comps, plus the close to $500 that the room would have cost me. That's pretty damn good for a low roller like me, and I still have a little bit of Ex Comps and Freeplay for next trip built up. The NYNY trip I have coming up I'll only have an extra $25 of Resort Credit, so not even one meal but still, the room for 3 nights is free. The program has definitely served its purpose, I do feel like if I'm spendin...

Most of my life, I live in a rut. My life here in the City is so mundane...I'm surrounded by great things to do and see here but hardly ever take advantage of them. 5 days a week I go to work and come straight home, then on my 2 days off I go out and drink one day in the same neighborhood I always do and spend the other day at home, then it's back to work. Week in, week out, same thing. Vegas every 6 months or so (or less) gives me something to break out of that rut, something to look forward to. When it comes down to it I suppose I love Vegas b/c it makes me feel like such a facsimile of an adult. I've never really traveled anywhere in my life and by nature I'm not a very adventurous person. I tend to choose the safe, easy option in life. Vegas allows me to break out of that shell for a few days a couple times a year, to leave the job in the company that someone else owns and the room in the house that someone else owns. I can spend a month's salary in a f...

So next up it's Christmas in Las Vegas. Heading to town again, arriving on Xmas eve and will be there for Day and day after. Going to be staying at NYNY, first time there and continuing with my theme of staying at a different resort every time in Vegas. I've been gravitating toward NYNY the last couple times in town, it always seems to have a great atmosphere and I love the Sporting House bar on site. Mandalay was nice enough but the place is pretty bereft of excitement, the casino is kind of dead and boring. NYNY's always seems packed and full of people having a good time, though I've never won any money there. It also seems more aimed at singles for some reason, or maybe that's just a perception as it has a lot of bars I can hang out in. Not really sure what to expect of Xmas in Vegas...I've read that the place will be packed or that it will be empty. No conventions obviously, so maybe the people there on the Strip will mainly be locals. Have read a lo...

I took this with my own camera. About 5:30 in the afternoon. Probably the single most amazing man-made view I've ever had eyes on in my life. Truly unreal. you can just barely make out the tip of the Stratosphere in the middle behind the hulk of the unfinished Fontainebleau. 4 MILES AWAY.

Vegas, late October. Overall good trip, fairly uneventful, if that's possible in Vegas. Arrived as planned at about 11:00a on Wednesday. After getting pretty comprehensively lost I quickly gave up on my plan to walk out of the airport and caught a cab. To MGM. I was staying at THEhotel at Mandalay and didn't have enough sleep the night before so I decided to head straight over and try to get lucky w/a room. Had a slightly bitchy check-in girl and was charged a $100 hold per night for incidentals, so that started off the trip on a bummer note. I am under no circumstances a wealthy person and I always have a very carefully planned amount of money that I take with me, so losing $384 of that (resort fee on top) was a shocker. I know it's just a deposit but I don't like having cash taken out of my pocket in Vegas w/o being aware of it beforehand. Anyway, got there so early that no Strip view room was available, so I just said fuck it and took a room on the 13th flo...

When I go to Vegas now, I have been taking in the neighborhood of 1K a day as my drink/eat/gamble budget. This time it will be $933 per, so I'm in that range. The first time I went I had around $650 a day, but I only stayed for two nights. Not sure how I didn't freak out having that little. I like to feel like I can pretty much do whatever I want as a non-whale gambler who has no card skills and likes to play penny or nickel slots. When it comes down to it, while I go to Vegas ostensibly with an amount of money that I'm prepared to blow, I do like to come back with at least a little left over. This time I will also have $125 in resort credit for MGM joints so I should be able to squeeze a couple good meals out of that as it'll be just me going. All I will really need to pay for is the resort fee for 3 nights, and one of those will be covered by the MLife points I have built up so I'm looking at about $50 of actual onsite obligations as everything else is paid for;...