2 more days

I got up at 5 to continue packing.  LiLi got up at 6:30.  Movers came at 9.  We weren't ready.  Cleaner came at 11.  We weren't ready.  LiLi accidentally packed her needs-safe-deposit-box new piece of jewelry inside its jewelry box inside a plastic bin inside the basement.  Which bin?  Well, one of about 100.  Mama, IIDSSM, did quite well to not COMPLETELY LOSE IT at that point.  In the end, the jewelry was found and tomorrow we go to the bank and visit the safe deposit box in addition to getting travelers checks.  

Unfortunately, the schedule on a giant whiteboard propped up on chairs in our kitchen cannot accommodate an hour or two of sideways motion (not to mention sobbing) so the rest of the day had an unfortunate edge to it.  Add to that the piles of stuff out on the curb waiting for Recology include an old piece of furniture emblematic of my long-over marriage, getting soaked and ruined in the rain waiting forlornly for someone reading Craigslist Free to rescue it.  As if that's not enough, it's New Year's Eve to the Year of the Dragon and our friends in Beijing report having been up all night with the firecrackers (apparently allowed inside the 4th ring road only during this two weeks).  LiLi already had her NYE shower and hair washing and it's my turn soon.  We actually scheduled the cleaner a day early because though she wanted to come tomorrow I checked in with my oh-gosh-bad-luck impulse to see if it was just silly superstition or if I really believed it and guess what, I did.  So she came today.  

These last days have been intense with goodbyes and seeing old friends including some soul connections whom I feel profoundly lucky to know, have known.  I've already been so so fortunate in this life to live with this amazing human being who is only eight, in this fantastic City, in this 112 year old house.  Maybe the planning and packing to leave, the leave-taking, the leaping, maybe it's all just an opening of the conduit to all that is human and aware, awake and alive.  So so so alive.