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

Took advantage of a little bonus money this past week to shore up Vegas - for the next trip and the next after next. Was asked not to pay half of rent this month since there's horrid house construction going on here, so used that extra bonus to: A) buy the plane ticket for the April trip. B) buy the ticket to Mystere on Xmas eve. C) buy myself another winter sweater so I don't look identical to last year on this upcoming trip. All good stuff. I figured I was going to be skint from now til the trip so rather than thinking short term and using the extra funds to go out this weekend in the City, I took care of making sure large portions of the next trips are handled. I'm pretty much resigned to last Saturday having been my last day out here til after the trip. It's 2 full months now, 8 weekends of boredom, but it is what it is at this point, it's the price I'm willing to pay for 5-6 nights in happy land. I'm more willing to pay it...

Less than 2 months to go-time, and the plan is coming together. Good mix of plan/no plan, with a ton of shows and steak to keep things interesting. Wednesday the 20th, fly in night, I'l be in town by around 9:30p. Catch a cab or Bell, be to Mirage by 10p, check in, get freshened up and head out to do some damage by somewhere around 11p latest. This will likely be a low or no gambling night, probably just get some drinks and a light snack and take it easy on the money. I was, with an unexpected tax expense, in slight money trouble for this trip but have decided to take out a Discover card with a couple grand limit so if any emergency pops up or if I'm just taking a cash pounding I'll have backup. So former money worries are now no worries. That said I will probably take it slightly easy the first night in town, knowing I have 6 FULL FUCKING DAYS ahead of me. Day One: Zero plan for this day. After checking out of Mirage and into Caesars, this will be one of the ...

In what's becoming a Xmas Vegas trend, I'm going to go see The Last Jedi in Vegas on the 22nd. I saw The Force Awakens for the first time in an almost empty theater on the strip 2 years ago. This time it'll be a bit further down in the Town Square mall thing, but will be seeing it in IMAX 3D. Town Square is a good mile or so from the southern end of the strip (Mandalay Bay) so it'll be a cab to get down there but that's fine. It's a noon show so not too early and shouldn't cut into my Vegas day all that much. In essence it's just like seeing a Cirque show or something in terms of the time hit and in any case I DID say I needed to do more planning for things to do on this trip so this is a good start. Maybe this and a strip show somewhere some other day and I'll feel like I haven't spent the entire trip staring at a bartender or a TV. Behind a bar. Then maybe after the movie that becomes the day I do my normal pilgrimage to Delano/MB for ...

The disaster in Vegas on Sunday night has me so heartbroken. I've come to think of Vegas as a home away from home, and this incident has shaken me like very few events in my life have. I'm not a Vegas resident but this feels like a knife being driven into me, even if it's from a distance. This isn't about me.  Literally hundreds of innocent people have died or been injured by this thing, and how this affects some washed up old fuck living in San Francisco is pretty irrelevant. But all experience is relative, and we all process things as they relate to ourselves. So here goes. My first thought is just sadness for the attendees. I'm no great lover of country "music", but this could just as well have been any other venue and type of show. Apparently Paddock had rented space above where the Life is Beautiful show took place the week before, so the type of music seems to have been irrelevant. These people were out on a lovely night in one of the gr...

So now I've figured out why my traditional first trip of the year weekend, the 1st of March, is so jacked up on hotel rates. NASCAR. So yeah, I won't be going to Vegas 1st week of March like normal - both for the expense and for the redneck cousin-fuckers who take over town. Lowest rates at any respectable resort for my non-comp having ass is $130+. Homie don't play $650 just for room rates; with resort fees and a flight tacked on to that I'd be lucky to get it done for less than a grand. So, that gives me options. A) Don't go to Vegas at all. I think those of you who follow this blog know how that plan would end up. B) Go earlier than 1st week of March. That's risky as I rely on my tax refund to supply a goodly portion of my 1st trip fund; with filing usually opening up around the last week of Jan/first week of Feb that's cutting it dangerously close. Too close. C) Go in April. This might make good sense as for a lot of reasons I'm prob...

One more go-out weekend in the City this coming weekend, then the Big Rut starts. Nearly 3 months of nothing. No going out, no buying anything, just saving up for 5 days in Vegas, almost 90 days in the future. It's a game I've played constantly for the past 6 years now. 3 months of saving and scrimping and having nothing to show for the time in things or experiences. it's just a big wait, a wait for a (not even a) week in the desert. It's almost like I'm putting my life on hold for half of the year, if I'm doing (minimum) 3 trips. In truth I'm sure I'll manage to get out at least a couple weekends of the 3 months, I'll go stir-crazy and put off a Vegas fund payment by two weeks, increasing the pain down the line for a furtive excursion on a Saturday. Usually that will be the first month (in this case October) of the save. Then reality will hit in November and there will be nothing but the Big Rut. Gotta have that $4K to blow on liters of liq...

A little over 3 months out from Vegas trip #4, VegasXmasalidocious. The hangover (literally and figuratively) from the last trip has more or less worn off. I still have a lingering sense of wariness about the way forward when it comes to my trips (i.e. am I going to continue to exclusively vacation in Vegas), but I'm getting jazzed for the Xmas trip, which is always my fave of the year. I've said it many times, I love the vibe and atmosphere in town over the holiday. I'm also jazzed to be staying at Caesars, which is a pretty amazing place to explore. Going to try to work in a show or two this time possibly, need to have more of plan for this trip but DAMN seeing a show in Vegas is expensive. At least $75+ for any decent show, and that's in the nosebleeds. Could do the myVegas redemption thing but that's only for two shows I've already seen. Maybe the "vary up the routine" will be more geographical rather than entertainment oriented. Maybe this ...