My brother showed his love by hitting me. A slug in the arm or if we were sitting next to each other in the back seat of the car, he'd slug me in the thigh. Philadelphia treated me the same way my brother did. It knocked me around.
I had selected a "new" condo building; a recently transformed Philadelphia high school. The AirBnB ad looked great and the price was within my budget. But things started to go wrong from the moment I arrived.
From being locked out due to a recent security change (no, there wasn't a key I could use and since I was not an owner I couldn't have one, but the concierge would let me in... if only the concierge would actually be by the front door...), broken A/C on 90 degree days, and the construction outside the window and next door, I figured that this may not be the place for me.
Since I couldn't leave the building for fear of not being able to return my first night, I made a little box of mac & cheese (a person comfort food that sounded perfect for this situation). The AirBnB didn't have a saucepan, so I ended up boiling the noodles in a tea kettle. When I was sitting at the dining table, exhausted from the drive and hauling all of my things out of my car, I saw a mouse run across the kitchen floor. Right then and there I decided I didn't need to stay for the entire 3 weeks that I had planned.
It took a bit of scrambling to find another location on such short notice, and sadly I just couldn't find another option in Philly that wasn't super expensive or in someone's basement. So, I decided to arrive at my next location early, Hudson, NY. Thanks for friends nearby that offered their couch while I re-worked my plan!