TN for 27 years. Pittsburgh is the first I've lived out of my home state since I even went to college in TN. But unless you can afford to live in the heart of Nashville you can only be a lesbian there for so long before it gets to you 😅

Here from TN! Got lucky and got an amazing wfh job so I finally decided to move out of the boonies and try to find a climate less likely to trigger my migraines (the weather fluctuations here are tricky for that but TN has 3 of the top 10 cities in terms of % of the population with migraines so thought it's worth a shot), and wanted to live in a denser, more walkable city.

And I love it here. My apartment is super quiet even though I'm still well within the city proper and less than a mile from 3 grocery stores and a ton of restaurants. I've taken biking back up for the first time since I was a little kid to get around too. The people here seem to be really involved in the community and I've met a lot of great people doing volunteer work.

People are also just incredibly nice here. I've been going through a rough time with insurance rejecting a migraine med that costs $1000 out of pocket for 8 pills and a woman in the cvs/target parking lot saw me crying and asked if I needed anything, could she get something for me, had someone hurt me, etc. A bit embarrassing because I hadn't meant for my emotions to get hold of me like that but really nice that someone thought I might be in danger or injured and wanted to help

Also everything is so green here. Ironically once you actually got into the nearest town to my rural home, despite being in the heart of the mountains and having a beautiful landscape, everything was so spread out and lifeless. It's just a collection of flat asphalt, a Walmart dn some other chains, then a collection of lifeless identical houses. Pittsburgh has a ton of green everywhere, everyone seems to have a ton of potted plants (I've gotten so many unplanned cuttings from people here, I just got back from my orthodontist with 2 new spider plant babies), and houses and apartments are all unique, oddly shaped, and differently colored. Idk it sounds like such a little thing but it's done wonders for me mentally to live in a place that feels like it has an actual identity.

Oh no worries at all, I was the target but not a victim, so I've never lost any money to it. Just a minor annoyance is all.

It can be jarring though even when you're almost certain it's a scam. Had a similar fright when a phishing scheme slipped through into my main inbox claiming to have a bunch of my online credentials (one of my old email/password combinations was likely leaked in a security breach since they did have a password I'd used, just not the most current). A small part of your brain can get a bit spooked and go "ok but what if it's real?"

I think enough people have said it's a scam for you to get the idea, but if you want to know how it works this does a great job explaining. You're not going to get to keep that $250 but rest assured, you're not going to get in trouble or be on the hook for not sending a refund. I've been the target of this scam 3 times and nothing ever comes of it if you ignore it

Oh that's awful, I can't believe I've never heard of this before. And christ, over 15 years too.

Ah thank you, I appreciate it! I just miss being 7 years old and dressing up like a pokemon or something, love to see that energy still going even if I don't have kids of my own. And I just love seeing what people do with their halloween decorations; this is my first halloween in pittsburgh and I've seen some cool stuff!

I'll check and see if they have any flyers up for needing volunteers, that's a good idea. Thanks!

I'll look into it, thanks! At the very least I'll do my annual halloween themed donations to the closest animal shelter, I like giving them little cloth pumpkin hides and blankets with ghosts on the, stuff like that so I'm happy to cozy up at home with a scary movie if I'm a bit late to the party.

And totally understandable on needing a background check, but I've not heard of Sandusky, you mean the town? I'm new to the area (got here 3 months back) so I don't know much about any history

Wow, I'm sorry you had to go through all that!

>Fishman's PA put notes in my chart about anxiety that were massively
overblown, and no one I saw after that was able to look past them and
see the patient actually sitting there in front of them.

Yup, been there; I used to have bad health anxiety (side effect of having chronic illness as I'm sure you know, and much better now) but I stopped telling Drs about it at all because then it felt like every symtpom was "because of my anxiety". Or my period, which I haven't had since I was 12 since I've been on birth control ever since lmao.

>He refused to answer that and instead scrolled through them and spouted nonsense like, "Oooh, right here I can see that you drink alcohol", "Here I can see that you speak a little of a foreign language" and other bullshit like that.

Wtf? My doctor used to do something like that and tell me shit like "oh you have a smurf in your ear"... when I went to a pediatrician lol. That's so incredibly demeaning, what an absolute freak

>It turns out I have an autoimmune disorder and needed to see a rheumatologist with some pretty obvious symptoms that absolutely should not have been missed. Instead, I wasted about $2,000 and 18 months on useless visits with assholes.

I'm glad you at least got some help and answers in the end, but man it is such a crap shoot. It's a shame because it does look like they take my insurance but I don't feel at all like dealing with any of that. Thank for the head's up