Superfluously Sabro

Sunday, December 16, 2007

My friend Liz posted some pictures on Facebook of her time in Europe. She lived in Sevilla, Spain for a semester. At the end of the semester I flew to Spain to visit and do some traveling. We spent a few weeks backpacking through Spain, Italy and France. It was such a perfect time, everything was beautiful and inspiring, I didn't want to leave. Sometimes I still think about moving to Europe for awhile. Well, back then when I was a SLR Camera snob, I wouldn't even dream of taking photos with a digital camera! And although I did get some great shots with my good ol' regular film camera, I can't post them for the world to see. So I rely on Liz so I can *steal* her pictures for my blog. Thanks Liz! It's so gray and bleak on this December day, so here are Europe pics so we can all dream about escaping... even if its just for a few seconds.

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Sabrina 1, Santa 0!

Oh the days are full of mixing and mingling... and some ring-ting tinagaling! Thursday night i got together with my usual Thursday night group. We exchanged gifts and laughed over pizza and had a good ol' time! Friday after work, I headed over to Shannon's house for our Christmas party in Buffalo night! We had been planning this night since the beginning of November, so the anticipation was high. I made a doubled recipe of spinach artichoke dip and my most favorite cream cheese\ham\pickle roll-ups! Yummmmm! I arrived first, so Shannon and i chatted and prepared snacks until Cindy and Jaime arrived. At one point Shannon and i went outside, so she could light her big Santa Claus on her front steps. She plugged it in and nothing! So we figured, Santa must be out of order. We were goofing around, shaking Santa up a bit and poof, a flicker of light! Shannan then had the bright idea that if she were to hold it, I would give it a *little* kick and maybe Santa would stay lit. I excitedly pulled my foot back and piled drived it into Santa's bowl ful of jelly... POW! And with everything Santa had, he gave one last burst of light and POP! The light bulb blew up! Ooops! I guess I won! Sorry Santa Baby!

Soon Jaime and Cindy arrived, we ate and drank wine and laughed until our sides hurt! We sang a heart warming rendition of Dolly Pardon's Hard Candy Christmas and made A LOT of fun of Trans Siberian Orchestra! We were just a bunch of small town girls having some big time laughs! Later we *tried* to watch Irving Berlin's White Christmas... Cindy and I sang almost every song, Jaime fell asleep and every few songs we would shake her awake exclaiming "Wake up Jaime! You gotta watch this one last song and dance number!!!" she never woke up... soon before we knew it, in the wee hours of the night we had all fallen fast asleep. Oh what fun we had! Before we knew it we were all laying there, strewn across the floor and couch, and it was 6:00am... we started chatting and laughing, eating and sharing tales of long long ago. We did this until about 9:00 until we parted ways and went back to sleep. Now i am up, ready to have a nice leisurely day of baking cookies and having a day all to myself. I think I still have a side ache from laughing so hard... Friends+Laughter=Priceless!! MEOW!

December 15, 2007

Jolly Ol' St. Nick

December 14, 2007

The "S" Stocking for "S" girls...

Friday, December 14, 2007

Settling In

I can't believe I have been in my apartment for almost one year now. When I moved in, I thought I would only be there maybe 3 months tops, and then I was going to buy a house. Well the house didn't happen, and I'm actually very glad. My little home has been a place of solace this past year. A cozy, quiet place to go to at the end of a long day. Sweet relief! I really don't want to move anytime soon, because it is one of my least favorite things! Over the past four years I have moved 4 times! Let me tell you, moving stresses me out! Actually, I was reading an article about top life stressors. And in this article they list, moving, starting a new job and loss of a loved one, as some of the most stressful things in life. Looking back over my year, the first part of the year I experienced all three events. Within four months, I moved, lost someone i loved, and I started a new job! It was indeed a very stressful time! However, I have spent the last part of this year, learning to "settle in". Settling into a life as a single person, settling into my home and my job. And really, learning to find peace and contentment in the little things, the ordinary moments. Sometimes big changes in life can stress you out and sometimes they are the motivators for real personal change. I am not who I was a year ago, and thank God for that! I really did not like who I was, mostly unhappy and disengaged from the world. Now, I am overcommited (in a good way!) and joyful most days... I am blessed, that is no cliche, I really really really am! I have been wanting to settle down for a long time now, I just realized, that is exactly what I have been doing! Funny how that happens!