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

Locked in the flights for NIN September. Alaska again. With a little discount from flight credit, outlay was only $176. Not terrible. Could have saved more but would have been a scrub, ass-end of plane seat and possible bag bump. As is I'm about in the middle of the tube on an aisle. Air prices likely to fluctuate greatly this summer but since fuel prices are unlikely to go down I figured the time was right to book. May try to stick with Alaska for this year to maybe build up enough points for a free flight by next year. NIN has begun the tour I'm going to see. First two shows had wildly different setlists so unsure what to expect to be played on the LV date which is fine, it's nice to be surprised. Just hoping there's no COVID surge and cancellations of shows. 4 months is a long string to run out but keeping fingers crossed.  The save has already informally begun for the trip. Going to put away at least $500/check between now and then and probably closer to $1K once I ...

So yeah, that happened. Highlights, I guess, such as they were. Flights: No issues. Got to the airport for the in flight plenty early, it was nice having it be on a day off so the lead up could be relaxed and cheap. Just caught the SAMTrans there, had plenty of time to grab a couple glasses of wine then got on the plane more or less on time. Hit the ground, taxi'ed over to MB and was out on the casino floor by 8p. Return flight also fine, on time, no complaints. Upgraded to better seats for both flights. Well done, Alaska. Food: Had a couple good meals, got Delmonico on Monday, stellar filet, then the next night did the bison filet at Rivea which was also eye rolling good. That was about it for good meals, the rest was as-I-found-it for the most part. Nothing else memorable. Used up some resort credit one day at the cafe at MB and gift card value another day at Yard House, so it wasn't too costly at least. Drink: A lot. many, many "free" drinks sitting at the endless ...

Last call for not-being-in-Vegas-ahol. The trip is nearly upon us. The laundry is done, the bag is 70% packed, half the money's out of the bank and my balls are shaved. All that remains is to sleepwalk through two more days of work then turn off the email and Signal notifications and get on the MOTHERFUCKING plane. I'm so ready for next week. Rarely have I felt more of a sense of "I fucking earned this" than this time. I've set my work on the right path this first few months of '22 and have things ready to expand, or soon will. I'm a star there and feel part of the team and about as vital as can be, for me. Now comes the "life" part of work-life balance. I'll give the career 48 weeks a year, those other 4 when I'm in Vegas - that's me time, ya bish. Mandalay Bay is locked. This is one of the rare trips where I booked 3 months out and nothing better came along to upset that. Adding the Saturday to the trip meant there were other optio...

We almost Vegas. In the familiar territory of being a little over a week out from a Vegas week. Not much going on in the prep, the plans for this one have been locked for a while now and barring some sort of last minute comp miracle they're not going to change. It's MB for the win, which is fine. A Strip View King is no slouch and with the upgrade could even score a junior suite so no complaints. TBH adding the Sat night killed a lot of the comp possibilities elsewhere but the total with no resort fees at MB will be like a full comp at other places anyway. Going to pull down the carry-on this weekend and start loading it up. Looks like 80's, low 90's that week so it'll be a simple pack. Polos and short sleeved button ups and Bob's your uncle. Didn't get to the full save goal but with the fact that I just got a raise and I'm a superstar at work I'm just going to take a full 6K and fuck the cushion in the bank. I'll build it back up over the next f...

The Vegas GP is a reality. Rumors have been abounding recently that is was a done deal but holy shit. My favorite sport happening on my favorite strip of land. It's likely to land on Thanksgiving weekend on a Saturday night. Can't book that far out since it's not available yet but damned if I'm not going to try as soon as it IS avail. It might take a months pay just to BE on the strip, anywhere. It will literally be thousands of dollars but imagine having a Cosmo Terrace Suite facing PH and watching the cars coming down a 200 mph straight (uh, otherwise known as the Strip) and braking into turn 11 right in front of you, for 50 laps. Unreal, Take all my money I want in.

Well. Got a nice, completely unexpected raise at work today. Going from $76K to $80K. As a percentage of my salary it's not that much, but given that I wasn't expecting anything it was nice. It is basically a $2/hour raise though, which I would have been ecstatic for at my last, corporate, stingy-ass job. It'll probably mean an extra maybe hundy per check, won't know til it kicks in in May. For a startup that has to be careful with funds it's great and appreciated. I also am apparently a superstar in the company, which is even more valuable, possibly. I got the highest raise rating in the system they've implemented, meaning I literally couldn't have gotten a bigger raise. And got a great pep talk from my notoriously hard to read direct boss. The company's also doing well, we could probably be selling 4 times what we can actually produce right now. Once we get the supply chain and the team built out it may be a rocket ship with more money and stock flowi...

SupPLANting the normal "plan" post this time and maybe going forward. I just don't DO much planning on trips anymore, so those posts in the past couple years have become a bore. Going with a different format this time. Why am I going? It's my birthday month, bitch. No other reason, aside from it's been 3 months since my last go, and that was a shorty. I'm unable (or unwilling) to go on my actual birthday week, since the NAB show is that week and it's the week before the NFL draft. I'm getting in and out before the crazy hits. Besides, it would have been a lot more expensive for rooms to go over my actual b-day. Where am I staying? I'll be at the lovely and talented Mandalay Bay again this time, 3rd time at the complex in the last 4 trips; it's becoming a bit of a home base. Frankly IMO it's just about the best property that is in the MGM stable; Bellagio is always overpriced, Aria/Vdara is in desperate need of a room remodel and I'm too...