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

Weeks flying by now as it's just 3 more until Xmas Vegas. A flurry of activity lately. The financial hit I thought I was going to take for a tax bill has strangely gone away temporarily, so there's $300 more in the Vegas fund that I wasn't expecting. The total save now will be $4200, plus about another $1700 available on CC's if need be. Should be more than enough with as little as I gamble anymore. I plan to blow it all though, I'll have 2 full months before I need to start saving for the April trip so I can pay myself back if I blast through the cash and some of the card balance. If I'm only going to take 3 trips a year going forward I'm going to make them blowouts and try not to hold much of anything back. If I come home with enough to buy a loaf of bread until the next paycheck (which will only be a week later) then I'm good. Last time it was enough to buy a computer so I'm not really concerned, Plus, even though I'm in less than good ...

The calendar rolls on and we close down to just over a month from Xmas-Vegas-O-Rama. The Xmas week is always generally my favorite trip of the year. Why is that? It dawns on me that one major reason may be one of the things I constantly decry on these trips. Solitude. You're never truly alone on a trip to Vegas, even on the slowest days of the year there are still tens of thousands of tourists and resort staff all over the strip, all busily trying to have their "What Happens..." trip or just putting up with us to be making enough to pay the damn rent. But the density of those throngs (maybe half of what would be there during NYE?) is far less during the holiday week, and for an introvert and shy individual like myself, it's a lot like heaven. I've never liked big crowds or crowded rooms. Even when I go out on weekends here in the City I try to seek out the mellow, uncrowded spots in town and will move on from even my most favorite spots if they start ...

Maybe an all-time great haul this time? Can't be arsed to go back and check previous freebie posts but: -5 nights comped at Caesars Palace - $795 value as of today. -myVegas reward for 1 night comped at Mirage - $64 value. -One comped night through Mlife at Monte Carlo in a Park room - $92 value -myVegas reward at Camelot Steakhouse for $50 off of $100 so $50 value. -myVegas reward for $50 drink credit at NYNY, $50 value. -Piff the Magic Dragon show at Flamingo using Vegas.com promo code, $50 off $60 show so $50 value. -Flight IN to Vegas on Southwest - $75 flight, used points, just paid $5 in taxes so $70 value. -Restaurant.com certificate at Slice for $25 off of $75 tab, bought for $4 so $21 value. -Restaurant.com certificate at Senor Frog's for $25 off of $50 tab, bought for $2 so $23 value. So that's around $1200 in free stuff. Not shabby in the least. myVegas has just recently changed its LP earning policy for the worse, so this may be the last time I ...

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...