Moving Day

It is the summer of 2005 and I'm heading out for a walk. A woman with a white skin looking down at a map looks up and notices me. And then walks up to me. She starts to speak French and I say I don't understand. She switches to a fairly heavy accented English and apologies saying she thought I was French. The then asks where the Russian markets are. Apparently they used to be right here and she visited them a few years back but now she can't seem to find them. I say I only know Yabao Lu, a few blocks away, but she says not that one. A few months later I was looking Google Earth and I used it's time lapse feature. I went back in time for my apartment building. Back to 2001 or so. When what existed in it's place was..you guessed it..russian markets.
 
The russian markets were somewhat still close by in the basement of the apartment building next door. I used to go there to by small cheap goods. I wig for halloween, dress socks, toys for temporal kid happiness. Then one day about a week ago when I was walking Elisa to birthday party I noticed the market was being replaced by a gym. It made all the sense in the world that we were moving the next day.
 
We moved the move up a day..from Sunday to Saturday because of a forecast of snow or icy rain on Sunday. Moving here is in some ways easy with uber like apps to book a van and two movers for about $150 USD. It is made somewhat more difficult because of busy streets, elevators, and security doors. Since we were all packed up the move itself too about five hours end to end. The kids helped with the move by mostly staying out of the way with Elisa helping to open the security door.
 
I've been wanting to move for a while. As much as it was the place I rebuilt my life from (see Getting Ready to Move) it wasn't that functional of a house for five. Aidan was sleeping on the coach which was fine when he was nine but less so at 13. The space and layout was otherwise tight.
 
When I was packing on Friday I was going picking up stuffed animals in the girls room. They have many most of which were won on the video game place next door. Previously we had donated many of these. I was going to donate some more. And by donate I mean but in a bag by the trash for whoever wants to take them. Elisa was home and I showed her what I was going to toss and she asked to keep a couple specific ones. I think picked up a well worn pink bear and asked Elisa if it was hers to, she said no. I don't remember what I did with that pink bear exactly, I must have "donated" it as well since that night Lydia asked me where it was. I turns out Lydia took that pink bear with her wherever she slept. Her mom's home, my home, vacation. Some how I was oblivious. And I had given her the bear a long time ago. She asked if I packed it, I said I wasn't sure. After we moved and we couldn't find it she checked every bag twice. She kept asking me if I remember it. She checked with the ayi if she left it at her mom's home. She had trouble sleeping and wanted to go back to our old apartment at midnight to check the trash. I felt horrible about that.
 
Once we got everything into the new apartment my priorities was making the house "operational". That meant kitchen, beds, and Wifi. Everything else could go slower. Sabrina's motivation was standing up the closet (she had to deconstruct  a closet to move it from one room to another). Eventually it all came together. Aidan has his own room. The girls have a room with an extra sun room. Me and Sabrina have a view. And the Wifi works.