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

Finally broke down and will see my first Cirque show in Vegas. Booked a seat on Saturday the 28th to see Beatles Love at the Mirage. It's the night my buddies who are in town will be seeing a Widespread Panic show at the Hard Rock (no, thank you and NO, thank you) so the timing is good. I also am a huge fan of (duh) The Beatles but also of the Love album which is really amazing. Cirque pretty much owns Vegas show-wise, for the most part all the MGM properties have a Cirque show, and they are all pretty long lasting so I suppose it's time to finally find out what all the fuss is about. This was another myVegas reward redemption. A $104 ticket, free, just for playing a goofy slot game on my phone for a half hour a day. I imagine in the month I have before hitting town I'll have cashed in a couple more (likely liquor related) rewards so it'll be another nice freebie haul this trip. The free room for 3 nights (going now-a month beforehand for $669), the $100 in slo...

The Riviera will close in May. Being turned into more Las Vegas Convention Center space. Not really sad to see it go, and not really surprised that it's happening. I stayed at the Riv on my 3rd trip to Vegas in 2012. It was very underwhelming. The check in line on a Saturday night was an hour long. The place looked like it hadn't been renovated in decades. Garish carpet, dingy brass fittings everywhere, musty. It looked like it was stuck in 1978. The rooms were no better. Smelly, small, with awful old carpet. Tiny bathroom. No view. It was very cheap though, and I suppose that's why it stuck around as long as it did. It certainly had a terrible location, almost at the very end of the Strip. Very light foot traffic up there. Being in the shadow of the half-built Fontainebleau couldn't have helped either. Probably says a lot too when the biggest attraction on your neon marquee is your food court. It felt like I was slumming when I was there 3 years ago, I can...

Little over a month until Vegas trip #1 of 2015. Really not that into it yet. Maybe it's still the hangover from the last crappy trip but any sort of excitement has yet to set in. Maybe it's because it's a trip in March. Maybe it's because I'm going to be tied down a little (but in reality probably not much) by the fact I'm not going to be there alone this time. Maybe Vegas is just becoming...routine? I'm checking all the Vegas blogs every day and saving up the money diligently and all the usual prep is happening, but it feels a bit like going through the motions. Starting to think I should take a trip somewhere else this summer, maybe do that US Open trip I've thought about for years. Maybe go to a Giants road trip city somewhere east coast and catch a couple games. Chicago? Mets? Dunno. Hoping this upcoming Vegas trip will break the slight doldrums I'm in about...Vegas trips right now.  Eh, when it gets down to a couple weeks...

Back to Vegas on the last week of March. Meeting a couple buddies in town this time, one of them is having his birthday that weekend so a little different from the normal solo trip. Imagine I'll be still ranging free for a couple of the days as he has some concert plans and such, but it'll be nice to maybe have a wingman for once, especially after the last trip. 4 nights at NYNY this time, no more bouncing back and forth between resorts like the last time. 3 nights comped and the last one at $83, which is pretty solid for one of the weekends of March Madness. Suppose it'll be pretty crazy in town for that week, for that reason. It's the Regionals weekend so the Sweet Sixteen will be going on. Should be interesting, especially in resorts that have a big sportsbook. NYNY's is tiny, so don't think it'll be too crazy in there but really any resort's going to be packed I would imagine. Got a great flight price from Southwest, only $154 round trip ...

Well, that was...interesting. Can't call that one a good trip by any means, but it will be one that I remember, at least parts of it. Other parts I don't remember at all. First night, flew in on plan, taxi'd over to Flamingo to check in. Got in/out of check in and up to my room in no time. Flamingo's "Deluxe" rooms are no Bellagio (nor even a NYNY) but it was relatively clean, modern (faux wood floors and all) and definitely a step up from the awful Harrah's room from last trip. Good center Strip view and oh, yeah, free. Came down and hit some of the normal spots, Henry and Bond at the Cosmo, Rock House at Venetian then decided to check out the Bourbon Room in Venetian. Kinda cheesy, light crowd, 80's videos on a huge screen. Contrived. Was just going to have one there and mosey, but these two girls sit down on either side of me. Can immediately tell I'm being worked since the one in front of me is looking back at her friend behind me every 3...

8 hours until I'm on a plane to unincorporated Clark County. Plan to be a very bad Santa indeed. Got a new Altoids tin today (for reasons) and a big sandwich to hold me over, going to take a nap in a little bit then it's up to shower and shave and off to Vegas for 5 nights, 4 days. If you see another post on this blog, it won't be for lack of trying to kill myself. Commence the Lost Christmas.

Another year in the books. Fairly uneventful, this one, and mainly good. Work took a turn for the better as I got myself out of a glorified manual labor job into more of a self-supervising middle management role at my company. My role is a bit nebulous at the moment and there may need to be some re-focusing in the new year but I'm able to basically run my own days with little or no interference or oversight. Pretty awesome for someone with my lack of formal business or college training. The company itself is doing very well and though I'm slightly the "weird guy" there the job seems safe and stable for the foreseeable future. Making decent money, will be around $35K net, which is fine for me as I have minimal obligations. The slashing of obligations was a theme of the past year, as I finally got out of debt and now live almost completely within my means; no mortgage, no car payment, no real bills aside from a quarterly Healthy SF contribution and cell phone ...