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

Arriving in town at around 2:15p on the 23rd, so it'll be straight to the Cosmo for check-in, bag drop. Check out the room, admire (hopefully) a view like the above, then it should be straight out as I'll be unlikely to need a shower or anything. Likely will hit Vesper or Bond inside Cosmo for a drink or seven, or maybe The Henry if I'm a little peckish, but won't need anything more than an app as I'll be steaking it up later. Maybe a little light gambling, a couple hundie at most, I usually take it easy on the first day/night as I don't want to dig too deeply into the bankroll on day 1. Probably roll out of The Cosmo at around 5p and start working my way down to Mirage for my 6:30p reservation at Tom Colicchio Steakhouse. Should be there a little early so I can hit the myVegas counter and get demoted a level (but I'm not bitter!) and pick up my voucher for the meal. Then should be time to check out the new Center and Parlor bars that have just ope...

Just bought a ticket to see The Force Awakens in Vegas on Xmas eve. Star Wars had a very formative effect on me as a kid. I saw the original movie in the theaters, and it blew me away. I got totally wrapped up in the movies, the toys, the bubble gum cards, anything and everything SW. It actually may have stunted my growth a bit. I didn't really want to hang out with other kids throughout primary school, I just wanted to get home and delve into my imaginary sci-fi world. I probably would be a little more "adjusted" now as an adult if I hadn't been so in my own head growing up. I know, woe is me. So, still being a fan (despite the mostly ghastly prequels), I bought a ticket to see the movie in Vegas. I normally wouldn't devote precious Vegas time to sit in a theater for 2+ hours, but Star Wars is special. It's an added experience on the trip that should add a level of coolness. It's at a theater on the Strip so I don't have to GO anywhere real...

The next, or maybe next after next, Vegas trip is already locked in. I managed to score a ticket to see The Cure at the Chelsea Theater in the Cosmopolitan in May. They're one of my all-timers and I've seen them 3 times previously over the years; this is going to be in an intimate venue at my favorite resort in my favorite place on earth. Feeling pretty lucky. I had no guarantee of getting a reasonably priced tick, I knew with a max capacity of the Chelsea being around 3000 it was going to be an unbelievably hot ticket. I logged on to TicketMaster at exactly 10a when the presale started...no tix available. I just kept mashing the "best available" tab for the next half hour and finally got an SRO ticket in the extreme back of the house, but IDGAF, I got a tick at face value for the motherfucking Cure at the motherfucking Cosmo. I figured I was going to have to Stub Hub it for 3-4 times face value (like my boss did). So then that night after getting the t...

Have my foodage all locked in for the Xmas trip. Ridiculous amounts of meat. myVegas will serve possibly it's last valid use, as I will be cashing in a couple steakhouse rewards on 2 of the 4 nights I'm there. Wednesday I'm rolling down to Mirage to do a $30 off of a $75 check reward at Heritage Steak. Heard good and bad things, but I figure you probably can't go too wrong with a filet and an appetizer. Plus, it's close to The Cosmo, probably a good thing on the 1st night. On Xmas Eve I'm doing my real splurge meal of the trip at the Luxor, with a $75 off of $150 check at Tender steakhouse. I'll eat early-ish around an hour after I get out of seeing Star Wars so I should be able to get in and out a little quicker allowing for more funtime. This will be a WHOA steak and appetizer and a couple nice glasses of vino to get to $150. Absolutely will be the most I've ever spent on myself on one meal. I wouldn't normally step foot in Luxor an...

I've decided to let my salt with MGM go and embrace freedom. Vegas freedom. Mlife did what they did, policies are policies, whatever. I'm over it. I'm looking forward now to staying somewhere different, and in fact, staying for FREE (ish) at a place I've always wanted to stay, The Cosmopolitan. I've managed to get into something of a south Strip rut by always taking advantage of Mlife comp offers and staying at NYNY or MC or Mandalay. Comped nights are great, but I've not really seen much else of the Strip but my usual NYNY-Cosmo run. Sure, I've been IN other resorts but MGM ones, but my loyalty to Mlife kept me from spending much time there. On this trip I'll have no real ties to any one resort or group of resorts, so the freedom of that is something I'm going to try to take advantage of. I've always loved the Cosmo, it was the first resort I ever stepped foot in and will always be one of my go-tos in Vegas, at least until it's b...

Double whammy of MGM suckage today, which led to a revelation. I woke up this morning to an email from Mlife touting the benefits of my Pearl membership level. I say, "huh, that can't be right" as I'm a long-standing Gold member. So I go to work, open up my Mlife account and lo and behold, they have dropped my ass down to Pearl as of the 1st of this month. I figure this must be a mistake, I've made 4 trips in the past Mlife benefits calendar year and used my card extensively on all of them, staying in MGM resorts every time. Surely they wouldn't DROP my benefits. So I send an email saying "hey, there must be some mistake, please restore my Gold level, blah blah". I get a form letter back saying I didn't spend enough in the past year to warrant staying at Gold, so I'm dropped to Pearl. I had a 2-night comped stay booked for Monte Carlo for my Xmas trip. I was going to stay in an MGM resort, play MGM slot machines, eat at MGM restaura...

This past check was the last one to prep up for the next trip.  Needed some duds and shoes for the actual trip, which I got. Got a couple sweaters (Xmas in Vegas is cold), a warm jacket and a nice pair of shoes. Got a couple sporty-ish but still not totally casual sweaters, a Columbia and an Adidas. The Jacket is a Helly Hansen, basically a replica of the Columbia one gaffled by the scammy bitches on the last Xmas trip. And finally a pair of Cole Haan kicks. The Cole Haans are a bit splurgy but I had a little leftover money from my last check so, hey, what the fuck. Sometimes you have to pamper yourself (or your feet). I also took care of one night of the Palms stay, then paid off that CC so that'll be less painful and the card will be ready to go to keep me from having to dip into the cash. If all goes right I won't have to put anything on my main debit card when I'm in town. Still feels a little strange to be paying for a room on this trip, but I suppose I...