Figuring out the living situation for next year

 We've been here before, this is a rehash of everything that's been talked over and rehashed and discussed, analyzed and thought about ad-infinitum until something gives.

I'm moving for sure this year, I'll be putting a significant amount of money into the move, that's been decided, a couple of grand if it comes to it. It's unclear if I can move to Philly as of yet -- work's not been clear on if the team will be fully remote or we're all expected to be on location forever, but the chances are we're expected to be onsite for at least some portion of the time. If I'm in Philly the idea's clear, find a nice clean modern single-bedroom or at worst a 2bdr with a nice clean respectful roommate to share with near where everybody else lives. Which is  matter of four or five blocks. That's not complicated.

For Boston area, things are a lot murkier.

The idea was to move to Alston in a 1-bdr in a relatively decently-priced unit that's close to the public transport, but several issues have come up. First, there's no real modern units the kind that I'm looking for and second, there's the question of rats and mice in the area which I'm not super excited about.

Somerville Cambridge and Backbay are still in the play but where am I going to find a nice modern decent-looking place all for myself without paying through the nose. Which makes me consider getting a 2-bedroom with 2 bath if possible. In which case I'll need to look for a roommate which is yet another journey I'm unsure I want to make.

The distance to the public transport is annoying, and so is the question of whether I want to be near restaurants and shops, or in a relatively residential area. If I want the privilege of walking to work at the cost of doing groceries being a hassle, or if paying a little more to be in Chinatown is going to be worth it.

Actually, the thing about Chinatown, there's some amazing almost unbelievable deals that are coming up which would have never surfaced in the past. They're not scammer-level unbelievable, still quite expensive all things considered but almost worth it to move into Chinatown, to the city. The grocery stores would be so much closer, the apartments are modern, I can eat out, hang out with friends, have people over, and i they don't want to go home they'd be more than willing to crash in the middle of the city, the lifeblood of modern culture.

Then there's the roommate search that'd have to happen, which bums me out. Trying to optimize for so many different variables is difficult, when you cannot count on anything to be stable, when there's no ground beneath your feet.

The idea was to get everything confirmed by April, now it's looking like the process may go until June.