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

Another good haul of freebies from Mlife and myVegas on this trip. -3 comped room nights at NYNY: $117 a night so $351. -No resort fees for those 3 nights: $33.60 X 3 so $100.80 -$100 resort credit -$75 Freeplay -Shark Reef at MB myVegas ticket: $20 -$75 off $150 Tender Steakhouse myVegas reward: $75 -Free drink at Hexx: $14 Total freebies: $736. Damn. The overhead (1 night's room, resort fee and the flight) is only about $200 so a hell of a net haul on this trip. Far better than the Aria trip. I'm up $500+ before I step off the plane. So despite my love/hate thing with Mlife, and especially myVegas, it's still worth the bother at this point. I may jump ship again and go back to Cosmopolitan for the Xmas trip, as it was pretty awesome last year to close out the year feeling like a prince in that amazing room, but MGM is still keeping me in the 4 trips a year game when I might not be otherwise. 5 weeks.

The plan for trip #3 this year is set. A little planning, but not too much. Wednesday, early flight in, doing the Bell Limo thing again, good value and no potential long-hauling by the shitty taxi drivers. Find a bar to hang out in for a while until check-in, then maybe get a quick nap depending on how I feel. Probably just get around after that, do the Cosmo thing, wander the strip and see what turns up, get something to eat somewhere, no plans at all on day one, nice "ease into it" day. Thursday is "plan day". Probably will sleep in a bit to recover from the early wakeup call Wed, then the morning/afternoon is a myVegas redemption day. Going to see the Shark Reef attraction there, probably will be touristy but I'm fascinated by sharks and have never been up close to one, so eh. Then around 5p-ish I want to head up to the Foundation Room lounge at MB to check out what's supposed to be one of the best views in town. If there's any time I may go ...

T-minus 2 months until Vegas #3 of '16. Happenings are afoot. Got rid of my Mido watch, crown kept breaking, so a big Amazon gift card refund will result in some Vegas swag and other related buys. Got a few new golf-style polos to upgrade the appearance. I'm not a 20-year old anymore, I can't keep showing up at the Cosmo on Saturday nights wearing a faded old t-shirt. Looking at maybe a luggage piece - would be my first, I've always just thrown the Vegas trip stuff in a backpack, but as many times as I go to town per year now it's probably time to get a damn rolling carry-on bag and be done with it. The backpack gets tedious to carry on those long airport walks. Also got a Kindle and some new quality earbuds for the airport/waiting around time while traveling. Got a new watch as well, kind of a splurge purchase that I'll have to pay down a bit before the trip. Was on a German watch retailer site and they had Bruno Sohnle Glasshutte watches at half price...

I make a decent amount of money. I also have almost no debt and very few bills. Why do I feel vaguely guilty about that? All my adult life I've been effectively poor. I bounced around from bad job to bad job, living paycheck to paycheck and rarely living within my means. If I wanted stuff, I would get credit cards to "afford" them. This led to bad debt and some bad financial decisions. For 25 years I was in a cycle of debt and low income and worry and stress and collections and blah blah. About the time I took my current job, things started to turn around. I was now making a decent wage and have a stable position. I started getting rid of all the bad credit card and loan debt. I got rid of my car. I did some consolidation. I started living within my means for the first time in my adult life. I dug out and no longer stay up at night wondering how I'm going to make rent or pay off one CC bill while going delinquent on another. I am, no doubt, in the best financ...

I had a revelation this week. I'm white trash. It dawned on me that the reason I feel totally comfortable at resorts like NYNY and Excalibur, and feel vaguely uncomfortable at places like Aria and Bellagio, is that I'm not in the nicer joint's league. I'm not a retired insurance salesman wearing Docker's shorts and a polo shirt playing $5 slots at Bellagio. I'm not a hotshot startup guy at Aria sipping Pinot and discussing stock options. I'm not an Asian whale at the Wynn throwing money away on Ace of Spades and hookers. I'm a jeans and a t-shirt guy. I like beer. I like sports. I like sitting in a dark dive bar in Vegas on a hot Saturday afternoon when the rest of town is trying to squeeze into the Marquee daypool. I'm a chubby, middle-aged, casual guy who'd rather eat at Dick's Last Resort than STK. And I suddenly realize I'm OK with that. I've been spending time in places I don't really fit in at trying to somehow ...

4 nights in early September booked. You'll never guess... NYNY!!!!!! Yep. New York New York for the 6th time. Why put out a perfectly good fire, I guess. Got a comp offer from them while I was in town last week, so I booked it this morning. Really good offer for such a lowly Pearl Mlife member like me. 3 nights comped, no resort fees for the 3 comped nights, $44 rate for the 4th night, $100 resort credit and I think it'll be $75 worth of Freeplay. So in essence they're paying ME almost a hundie to stay for 4 nights. Not bad. The all-in on the flight was $115, so my overhead on this trip will be ultra-minimal. Hotel location is perfect as I'll be seeing Coldplay at the T-Mobile Arena (in a seat this time!), so it'll be an easy walk to the show. Can't believe I'm saying this, but even though I just got back 2 days ago, I'm already looking forward to this trip. My post-Vegas hangover is minimal this time, clearly. 3 months and a week of wait time...

Back from trip 2 of 2016. Fairly normal Vegas trip, as it was. Flight out was fine, JetBlue reliably on time and comfortable enough for a short trip. The TSA line was a lot longer than I normally see, but supposedly that's a thing this summer and I left myself plenty of time to get through it. Was funny watching all the idiots trying to tell TSA members their plane left in 15 minutes and being told "too fucking bad". Once on the ground in LAS the Bell limo ride went about as well as could be expected. Had to wait about 15 minutes from check in to ride out but was solo in a limo and for only $25 each way including tip it was worth it. Taxi would have been more and this way I arrived in style. Once to Aria check in there was beyond easy, I did mobile check in earlier and asked for a 12:45 check in time, wasn't expecting to actually be in the room before 3p but I got an email as soon as I walked in the front door and was in my room 5 minutes later. Total breeze. Wi...