chocobridges

chocobridges t1_j9ui14q wrote

Lots of food. I usually make all the deep fried stuff. Pakoras, puris, that sort of thing. There are lots of sweets but I'm not a huge fan of the traditional stuff so the new trend is to adjust European desserts with South Asian flavors (ex: chai or rose cardamom tiramisu).

The activities are super kid friendly. My toddler basically played with all the urlis (wide dish with flowers and candles) we had out like they were water sensory bins. There are rangoli designs and painting of the lamps (deepas/diyas).

2023 landed pretty close to Halloween so we decorated in Halloween colors. This year is veterans day but I'm just going to combine thanksgiving with it since I'm hosting a smaller gathering. We usually do a large typical American thanksgiving with Indian sides since my extended family is interreligious. But I'm making it South Asian inspired this year. My kid will be making samosa turkeys instead of hand turkeys this year (https://youtu.be/_PhdTTrKPU8) 🤣.

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chocobridges t1_j2565dh wrote

I live in Pittsburgh too and all of your bills look atrocious. Like why are you paying $123 for internet?!? We've never paid more than $65 (both Verizon and Comcast) the five years we lived here.

Your gas and electric combined is really high too. We have a 1500 sqft house and never spend that much. I lived in a luxury apartment where we paid $1200 and our comfort billing never went over $40.

So many of our friends lived in super connected neighborhoods for $600 month. The only reason I did the luxury apartment was to have in-unit washer dryer (you're paying $50 for laundry?!?!?) since my husband was short on time so he did laundry when we hung out.

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chocobridges t1_j1sxlbn wrote

I'll give you the other side of the coin. My husband is IM in Pittsburgh as a hospitalist because he got residency in Youngstown. First screw the tristate for not considering giving preference for their own unlike the rest of the county. My husband ranked both FM/IM in CT, NY, NJ and he did rotations in all those programs but one.

Youngstown was next on the list after that. He gets to Youngstown and tells them he's staying local since I moved to Pittsburgh 8 months into residency. They gave him the shittiest outpatient rotations and gave Ohioans the good ones. Most of them specialized or didn't stay in the area.

So he pisses off his program by not staying on for outpatient after finishing residency. That residency program killed his dream of opening a practice early on. Now he's a hospitalist, makes good money, we have LCOL, loans will get paid off, WLB and doesn't take work home.

All of the PCP practices are closing and the hospitalists' workloads are increasing because those old PCP rounded on their patients at the hospital. No one wants to take over their practices, it's not worth it.

Now we are living here until the loans are paid off, we don't need early intervention since NJ has an income cap unlike PA, and our kids are out of public preschool. When we move back I fully doubt my husband switch to PCP. Our trajectory changed so drastically by matching in the Midwest.

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chocobridges t1_iu2fhyk wrote

If someone is in a hole digging around and 10 people are around there is probably a utility that wasn't on the plan (hello old metro US). Last thing you need is to shut water for an entire neighborhood, cause a gas explosion, electrocute someone, or cut through telecom.

Also, people have to wait around when there are material (especially concrete) deliveries and permit (traffic or noise) restrictions.

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chocobridges t1_ito90zd wrote

kim fleischer photography. We like her style for urban shoots just haven't had a chance to book a session with her. She does indoor shoots too.

We went with Melissa Lucci, who isn't budget at all. We $250 on a bad photo shoot with someone else and never again.

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