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

In 24 hours I will be sitting in an airport bar waiting for my quick flight to LV. All set aside from some housekeeping tomorrow. Going in for a half day of work, out at about 1:30, hit the bank to pull out the Vegas funds and rent. Head home, quick shower, pack the rest of my shit then it's back in the car and over to the parking lot by the airport so the Audi can chill in safety for 7 days. Shuttle to the terminal, get through TSA a couple hours early then it's the waiting game for the (hopefully) on-time departing 7:55p flight. Always love the feeling of the hour or so in the airport before the flight takes off. Getting there plenty early takes the stress out of any possible security delays, and it's a great opportunity to relax, have a beer and get the head into a Vegas state; let all the day to day bullshit go and get amped for the upcoming fun. Then if all goes to plan it's on the ground around 9:30p, over to the Mirage in a cab by 10:00p, up to the room ...

Final countdown to Vegas-Xmas underway. Weeks/days flying by now. Not much left to do. One last laundry load to run, probably Monday or Tuesday. Kinda wishing I had a bigger backpack or real carry-on for the in flight on this one, I've never had to pack for essentially 7 fucking days before. My poor backpack is going to be heavy as fuck and bursting at the seams on the way in. I will have a lighter pack on the way out though as I have to trim weight and size to be able to take it with me on the Frontier flight back. They only allow "personal items" that fit under the seat or I'd have to pay as much as the flight ticket to take it on with me. So, I'll be shedding my undershirts as I go. 5 of them are probably 6-8 trips old anyway and are getting ragged so I'll just replace them when I'm back. No biggie. Everything else should squish down fine. No change on the money. It'll be enough to have a full, nearly normal save for each day. Looking back at...

It dawns on me that I'm starting to close in on having stayed in the bulk of the major resorts on-strip. At least most of the CET/MGM ones. The list as of the end of this year (and rolling updates): Stratosphere Riviera (RIP) Luxor and the Luxor Towers Excalibur THEhotel (Delano) NYNY Harrah's Flamingo Mandalay Bay Monte Carlo (RIP) Cosmopolitan Palms  Aria Planet Hollywood Paris Bally's Mirage Caesars Palace Park MGM MGM Grand Tropicana Vdara Palms Place That's a good chunk of what's out there. In terms of un-stayed major resorts that would leave: Venetian/Palazzo (would love to but pricey) Wynn/Encore (would love to but pricey) Circus Circus (LOL no never) SLS (probably not, SO north, see what happens after new ownership takes over) Waldorf Astoria (unlikely due to expensive and no casino) The Linq (quite possible at some point) Cromwell (would like to but it's pricey for smallish r...

The money is set for Vegas, and it may get slightly better. Got the Xmas bonus very early this year, it's the same as always with the caveat that instead of a big stack of ones like the last several years it's in the form of a check with taxes taken out - so it's $425 this year. Eh, the other $75 would be nice but I also don't want to be having them break the law for it. So that allows the total save to be a respectable $4570. That will mean $530 (see below) to spend in transit to Vegas and on the first short night, then exactly $700/day for the rest of the 6 days. My goal is always to have $1K per day but with the long-ass trip this time that was never going to happen. As stated previously, the level of gambling I do anymore makes the 7 bills enough for every day. I'll also have around another $2000 if needed on CC's as a backup, so it'll be plenty. My math could be fuzzy too (fuck math) so there might be a little extra to work with when I finally pu...

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 ...