It is that time again.  Las Vegas at Christmas time.  Although it was not supposed to be. I am supposed to be in the Middle East.  But war.

I never posted my last trip report so you do not know this but back in May, when I was in Vegas, I got sick of Vegas.  I mean I got SICK of Vegas. It just felt increasingly dumb to gamble.  I wasn’t having fun and I didn’t want to be there anymore.

I had another trip booked for July and cancelled that while still in Las Vegas. I thought this was finally it.  But then here I am with time off and nowhere to go because my planned trip to the Middle East was off.  But I don’t want to spend the trip in Vegas.  But Vegas is easy.  But I don’t WANT TO GO THERE.

I priced some other destinations that were quite expensive as I was now not booking far in advance.

I also really hate my job. Perhaps if I had spent a week or two checking on things, I could have done better.  But because I hate my job, I absolutely must have all trips booked NOW because having trips booked NOW is how I stop myself from screaming FUCK YOU I QUIT.

So I decided to use Las Vegas as a base to see other cool stuff.  This way I get to take advantage of my comps, but this is not an actual Las Vegas trip.  It is a trip where I am using Las Vegas as a base to see other cool stuff.

I’ll write more about that cool stuff as it happens.

Booking this trip was so difficult.  I had to keep telling myself this is not a Vegas trip.  Yes, you do want to stay in this hotel but guess what?  YOU CAN’T.  Because this trip is not about Vegas. It is about using Vegas as a base.

I am also going to be burning a lot of my comps on this trip and I am fine with that too.  I do want to keep Boyd in tact because I love Boyd.  Cosmopolitan too, but since they are now owned by MLife, they may break up with me after I burn MLlife on this trip.  Oh well.

I arrived in Vegas, fresh off a cruise to the Bahamas that was plagued by weather issues.  I didn’t care about all that.  I didn’t want to go to the Bahamas.  I just went because it was a $100 cruise and I had time to kill.

Then off to Vegas!  I rarely arrive in daylight so I took a million photos as we were approaching Las Vegas.

Continue reading →

Today I woke up at Cosmopolitan in time to watch the sunrise, before going back to bed.  I am personally confused on how I was facing the Rio when I was facing South, but here we are.

Waking up for real, headed right to MY Ultimate X video poker machine.

Arrived at District Donuts 2 minutes late for breakfast. Yeargh. When attempting to put sugar in my coffee, the lid fell off the sugar and a pound landed in my coffee.  Oddly, I never use sugar, so this was just reinforcing that choice.

Continue reading →

Good morning Las Vegas!

Maintenance knocks on my door.  The sink next door is clogged.  Hate people randomly coming into my room when I am not prepared. What if I washed my underwear?  Maintenance dude knocked over my toothbrush haaaaaaaaate.

I am staying at California on a video poker tournament.  I did terrible.  I kept fucking up and missing holds.

I grabbed lunch and had time to shower before my next meeting.  This was a rare treat of ending the day not starving and already showered.

I went to Dunkin Donuts and somehow got a really bad coffee.  This has never happened before in my life.  Why.

Played at Fremont, all the machines here hate me. I had the thought that I have had many times, which is – how do I keep getting comped here when the machines hate me so much that I can’t play anything because I have no money?!

Forced myself to go to Walgreens for Benadryll since I have been ignoring the fact that I am very sick.  This will probably not cure me but will give me an amazing sleep tonight.

I stopped to play Buffalo at Binions on my way back to my room.  The card reader isn’t working so I guess we are broken up?

Burger to go, room and Benadryll and zzzzzzzzzz.

I do want to say that I am posting this 6 months after I wrote it up.  Since then, I took a three week NON WORKING trip to Las Vegas and it really just makes these working trip days seem so short, stressed and boring.  I am sorry I am boring.

Las Vegas trip report day 8.  Good morning Las Vegas!

I wanted to get Dunkin Donuts before work but woke up way too late.  I have not had any one day since I got here where I had normal sleep.  Fortunately, Laperts is open and they have coffee.

Back to my room to work!

Housekeeping came.  I was hoping they would not.  I do not have a do not disturb sign but kind of hoped they simply don’t have housekeeping at all in these (still) Covid times.  She told me I was supposed to check out today.  Nope, Monday.  She asked if she could call the front desk from my room to verify.  Yes.  No one is answering.  “Are you checking out tomorrow?”  No, Monday.  “So tomorrow?”  No, today is Thursday, I am checking out on Monday.  “Do you need towels?”  No thank you.  “So you check out tomorrow?”  I am sorry, there actually is a camera on since I am in a work meeting but I didn’t realize it was feeding to Candid Camera?

Continue reading →

Las Vegas trip report day 5.

I woke up at 5:30 at Treasure Island.  I thought there was a huge bug in my room but it turns out it was just the top of this lamp. Holy morning heart attack.

I went to get Starbucks before work.  Having a Starbucks inside the actual hotel was a huge selling point for me.   Well the line – nope.  Starbucks opens at 6:00, which is when I have to be “at” work.  I would have still been on the line when my first meeting started so CVS bottled coffee it is.  HUGE disappointment.  I do not have a lot of work meetings tomorrow or Wednesday so I am moving to Mirage after work today.  It sucks that I am paying for my third night at Treasure Island and won’t be staying. Yes I could cancel it.  No I won’t because I feel I should pay for my terrible opinion of thinking this hotel would be the most perfect hotel for working.

Also mobile hotspot also sucks in this room.

Continue reading →