the gathering flurry of an exit to be made

The plan is, tomorrow morning, we clear out a big chunk of our apartment fixture. The coffee table, the bookshelves, the glider and ottoman. Going to three family friends. Our air conditioner is already gone. That leaves the big couch and single bed and various books and kitchenwares to give away. At first I thought about selling these things, but my husband and I both decided that it is far better to gift them to friends who need these items anyway. This will help us to remember old friends even better, since each item creates a memory of our relationship rather than just cold hard cash.

I'm looking forward to more and more space in the apartment. Good for my son to practice crawling about. During his nap-time today, I finally picked up the Lonely Planet tour book that my husband bought regarding China, and read up on Zhejiang and Hangzhou specifically. It strikes me that I'm returning to the province my grandparents had evacuated from during the civil war. I will be seeing, for the first time, my supposed homeland that I've never been. I looked for, and found, the town that my great (to the nth)-grandparents came from, and enjoyed a moment of amusement at the serendipity of one of their descendants returning to the province, except to its capital.

It made me a little more excited about leaving what is comfortable and seemingly safer.