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

4th and final Vegas trip of 2013 done and did. Good but exhausting trip. Flight in was fine, took a shuttle from the airport to MGM and hung out at the new Whiskey Down bar in there since I was way too early to check in. Personable bar staff, had a couple shots and beers, then proceeded to throw my first (of very, very many) hundie into a machine outside and promptly lost it. This will be a theme. Then made my way over to NYNY to check in. The room was comped, and I was staying in a standard room, so I was expecting to pay the resort fee and be on my way up. I get told, despite not being in a suite, that I will again have a $100 per night hold to pay before checking in. Apparently when your room is comped you get charged this fee. This bugs the shit out of me, and despite protesting to the clerk and a "customer service" manager they will not reverse the hold. This despite the fact that there are no amenities in the room, not even a bloody coffee maker. I get the cha...

36 Hours until Vegas trip #4 of 2013...can think of no better way to end up the year. This whole year has been a bit of a Vegas year for me. Trips in April (Luxor), June (Excalibur), October (THEhotel) and now December (NYNY) have been the highlights of an otherwise unremarkable year. Work is unchanged, same dead-end but at times rewarding job. Same tedious cycle of work 5 days, have Wed/Thurs off, never a weekend off, seldom doing much of anything noteworthy. Same invisibility to the opposite sex. Unless lightning strikes in Vegas, this will be the first year I can remember that I won't have gotten laid. At all. It may have happened in the past; I am, after all, old, but it's been very few and far between if at all. I've had a couple random smooching sessions, and truth be told, I could have taken advantage of a couple situations this year to get the deed done if that was my sole goal, but in every case getting my peener wet would have come with other baggage that put ...

How I roll. I've touched on it in previous posts, but I'm a pretty, erm, basic guy when it comes to how I present myself in the world. I try very hard not to put on airs, and often find people who are wearing designer clothes and driving Porsches to be pretty high up on the douche scale. It's just a world that I have never found myself in, and if I did, would feel pretty uncomfortable in. I'm not a particularly sociable guy. I try to avoid "gatherings" whenever possible, unless I'm completely comfortable with the situation and the with the people who will be attending. I like going into bars but tend to bail out when they become very busy and crowded. I greatly prefer being one of just a few people in the bar, where you're able to have a conversation with someone and not be drowned out by bad karaoke or someone screaming in your ear after one too many Fireballs. I do a lot of daytime drinking for this reason. Fashion-wise, I have no taste bey...

Starting to formulate the gurgling, bubbling protoplasm of a plan for the Xmas Vegas trip. It involves meat. Lots of meat. The big meaty extravaganza will be on Xmas day, as my Xmas dinner reservations will be at Gallagher's Steakhouse in NYNY. It has good recs on the review sites, and seems to be fairly unpretentious, which is what I look for in steak joints. If I have to wear a tie, it just ain't happenin'. It's certainly local to where I'll be staying (uh, NYNY), and fills my desire to have more than just a taco and a Corona on Xmas. I'm not remotely a religious person, but the holiday is the biggest in the US, for better or worse, so I feel like I kinda have to not just slum it. Doubt there'll be any turkey happening, but I'll definitely kill me a sirloin that night. So that's Xmas dinner, but that leaves me with at least 5 other meals to be had during the 3 1/2 days I'm there. I'm reading a lot about Vegas becoming one of the burger...

Vegas is changing. Again. As referenced in the previous post, Vegas seems to be again looking to re-define it's public face. From the OG "Wild Wild West" period pre-Strip, to the Mob era, to the Family-fication period in the 90's to today's apparently waning "What Happens In Vegas..." phase the Strip has always aggressively marketed itself to a certain demographic. Outlaws, drifters, families, High Rollers, Britney fucking Spears, you name it, Vegas has pandered to it. That makes the current trend toward upscale retail a little confusing. Almost all the modern Strip casinos either have now, will soon open or are planning big, multi-level, mainly upscale retail shopping areas. NYNY/Monte Carlo, the Trop, Linq and others will join established retail players Caesar's, Mandalay, Crystals, Miracle Mile, etc. So...what's the demo the Powers That Be are going for here? 30-something female ad executives? Metro-sexual trust fund bros? I mean, I'...

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...