My story thus far (warning: it's long) and where I would like to be

I read most of it and skimmed through the rest. Anyway, here are some thoughts about your situation.

1. Never room with anybody. You are always going to get under each other's skin sooner or later and it'll all turn to shit. Wait until marriage for that.

2. You shouldn't have held back. You should've told him everything you said about him here. You can't bottle up those kinda feelings. You need to tell him what you think of him even if it is cruel. He'll most likely fire back and you'll get into a huge verbal fight, but believe me, you'll feel so much better than you got it out.

3. I don't mean to sound like one of those people, but you gotta cut down on the weed and the beers. I personally don't smoke or drink(and never have), but when you are tight with money like you are, you need to spend it on useful things. You have to learn how to manage your money better.

4. Don't pay your friend back. If what you said is true about his dog ruining your electronics, I wouldn't have even considered paying him back and I wouldn't have accepted him not paying me back. He didn't have to let you live there. The second he let you live there, he becomes partly responsible for your things that you are keeping there. Especially if HIS dog ruined it. He is absolutely responsible. No real friend tells you that you already owe them so you are even. This person is a jerk and isn't a real friend. No real friend would act like that.

5. I live in Philly. Born and raised. It is my favorite place in the world, but you really need to consider some things before a) moving in general and b) moving to philly of all places. For one, some people make irrational decisions. Take a breather, make sure you absolutely want to move before you do anything. Secondly, you should know before you move here that Philly right now is a very dangerous place to live. Philly is destroying every other city right now in terms of murders and homicides. Philly is setting record numbers in this department and is getting worse every single year. You'll want to be real careful where you live here, because some neighborhoods are simply not save for people to live.

Cheesesteaks are the greatest food ever, so if you do move here make sure to send me a PM. I can hook you up with all kinda of locations to get great food around here(not just cheesesteaks). So let me know if you move up here.

6. Life is tough and everyone goes through their problems. You are in a crisis right now, and you'll definitely go through more in your life. Your time on this earth is not long. You have to do what makes you happy. From reading it seems like you were doing a lot of things to please other people. Screw them, seriously. There is no reason you should go through life miserable. None. Sit back, and think about what you want for your life and go out there and get it. Don't like anyone get in your way.


7. Every town, city, and place has jerks. Moving to Philly won't be any sort of a safe haven. People have judged me and disrespected me my entire life. People still do. Wanna know something? I've grown to love and embrace disrespect. I use it as motivation to keep bringing the best out in myself. It no longer bothers me even in the slightest. People can judge and disrespect me all they want, but it is nothing but talk. None of it matters. No one can stop you from doing what you want to do. My advice is to use the people like in your story as motivation to become stronger. You won't ever be able to find the perfect place where everyone gets along and treats you right. That is unfortunately what the world has come to. I have just come to terms with the fact that this is the way it will be and you need to learn to handle it to a capacity.

8. Good luck

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Philly is only a 2 hour or so drive away from a lot of places in NJ that are great(if you are going for the right things). You get to Wildwood, Ocean City, Atlantic City in about 2 hours or less for AC.

Since you lived in California, you probably know your fair share about great beaches, so the NJ shores probably wouldn't do much good for you in that department, but man Wildwood has one great boardwalk. Lately the caliber of people have declined. There are a lot of white trash and thugs littered there now, but it is still a fun place to go. Miles of nothing but food, games, rides, and beaches. If you want to get away from it all, take a little trip down there from when you get to Philly and just relax. You'll blow a lot of money so be careful though. Only go if you can afford it. At this point you really need to be careful with your money.

NY would still be a cool place to check out, but I'm just saying NJ is a very underrated place to go. No one thinks of it because its so small and PA and NY tower over it, but it has some great places and great food in some areas.


As someone said before though, Philly is probably a lot more relaxed than LA. I've never been to LA, but I've heard that it is very high-maintenence and self-absorbed in a lot of areas. Aside from the bad crime here, Philly is pretty laid back. It is a blue collar town in every defintion of the word. People here get up early, go to work, come home and put dinner on the table. They really don't focus on all the high-life extra stuff. It is a very homey town. It doesn't have the sights and touristy stuff that places like NY and DC have, but it has great food and is pretty cozy and comfortable. Again though, some areas you just really need to stay out of. Mostly parts of north, west, and southwest Philly.

Any idea what section you are moving to?

There's nowhere I can't reach.

15 minutes from downtown... you should be in a decent area(not 100% certain though), and you'll be in pretty close distance to a lot of good places to get food that I'll give you. South Philly/Downtown has like 75% of the best food and everything in Philly.

By the looks of you places you lived, you'll definitely have to adjust to Philly winters. It can get pretty cold here, but I personally like it. I know tons of people out there would have it 70 degrees every single day if they could, but I love having a mixture of the seasons. The NY, PA, NJ are gets a great mix of all the seasons. You get the hot, cold, warm, and cool, but it never gets too intensely bad as to where it's too much.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I can't tell from those pics (a lot of Philly neighborhoods look exactly the same in some areas) but you should be ok. You'll be ok anywhere pretty much. Just make sure you don't do the stupid things like walk around too much at night. It sounds lame and prudeish, but it is better to be safe than sorry. Philly is really really bad in murders right now, so you just have to be careful.

You'll be able to find a job here I'd say. I don't think there would be too much trouble. The only thing is, minimum wage is a lot lower here than LA I believe, but on the flipside, it is probably quite cheaper here to live compared to LA, but I could be wrong.

Another good thing about Philly is, there is a deli or pizza place on every single corner pretty much. So you'll never have to look far to get something to eat. Also grocery stores are always pretty close, so you should be cool there too.

Also make sure you get some water ice. Most west coasties have never had it let alone heard of it. Water ice and a soft pretzel in the summer is unbeatable.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Hard to explain what water ice is. Philly has a lot of water ice stands all over the place. I've never met anyone that didn't love it so I'm sure you'll like it a lot. It is very refreshing.

http://ritasice.com/products_italianIce.cfm

Is one of the major chains that started in the Philly area and now is spread throughout the east coast.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by RacinReaver

Rita's is ass compared to some of the local varieties I've had. I still remember one of my favorite childhood memories was going to the Vet to see a Phillies game and getting a lemon water ice on those really hot days when we had seats up in the 700 level and there's no shade in sight.

You should be fine getting a job that pays around $10/hr. In Pittsburgh you can split a pretty decent two bedroom aparment or a house for as little as $300/month a person, utilities are cheaper (except for gas if that's what heats your place, try to get somewhere that it's included or has good insulation), as should just about everything else. Just get used to having worse tasting fruits, though. Nothing beat what I would get from this farmer's market out in Irvine.

I was talking about UC Santa Barbara, actually. I flew out to there and Caltech to look at them for grad school and just couldn't stand the people at Santa Barbara.

Also, if you think public transit in Irvine was good, wait until you get out east where you've got the SEPTA system in Philly. You can take local transit to New York for pretty cheap or even out to lots of the suburbs for just a few bucks.

Yea, Ritas is is good, but not even close to the best. I used their link because I don't know of anyone else that has a website.

How ya doing, buddy?

Man Philly has been having some crazy ass weather this summer. It is 65 right now and I think it was a high of like 67 today. In a few days it is supposed to go up to 95.

Crazy ass weather.

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