Oh, the weather outside is frightful...

Christmas break has begun! And, once again, the airlines are not being my friends. We had some fun doing the Christmas thing the last week or so, went to a cookie exchange, where we somehow ran out of time to exchange cookies, a Christmas concert that was fun, but seemed a bit like we were in a high school gym/lyons club hall. But... the director guy really looked like the happiest man alive and it was entertaining enough. Although, the girl they had singing in a tiny little skirt was a bit painful to watch, every time she bent over to get a glass of water we would all cringe and try not to stare, but for some reason couldn't help but watch and torture ourselves. The rest of the week at work flew by, had a Christmas party, talent show and a random snow day.

Speaking of snow... I was supposed to fly out Monday morning, but... all of Europe is a mess because of the snow. How it is this shocking that there is snow at this time of the year is amazing. Heathrow and Gatwick have all but shut down and flights in'/out of Germany aren't much better. I was supposed to go through Paris, but after arriving at the airport a little before 5am and a few delays, I realized I wouldn't make my connection and went down to get reticketed for a different day and by the time I got there they had cancelled the flight, I was lucky and was only 4 or 5 people back, but it still took nearly 4 hours to get rebooked. Oh, and it made me wish I was in a wheelchair or had a kid, because apparently then it it TOTALLY ok to walk to the front of the line and ask ONE person if it's okay if you go ahead of them because of your situation. It happened a couple of times before this guy just lost it and started yelling at anyone that even tried to ask a question, let alone cut in line. It's crazy how long it takes to reroute one person, it's like 20+ minutes... I felt bad for the people that worked there. I had an option to try to fly again the next day, but they told me it was unlikely the flight would make it, so if I lived here, it would be wiser to go for the next confirmed flight I could get, which was the 23rd. Whatever, and in typical fashion... they couldn't locate my checked luggage and said it would take at least 5 or 6 hours before they could get it to me. So, instead, I can just go the day of my flight, pick it up at Lost Luggage from Austrian Air and then recheck it on my KLM flight through Amsterdam. I'm sure that is totally going to work out. I decided that I will go out to the airport tomorrow and try to locate my luggage and get it checked in. Who knows if that will work. Unbelievable really. I had to laugh at this point, my luggage situation is now just a joke. My carry on is probably enough to get me by for a week or two... Steve was really great too, he was planning on flying home that morning, but now stayed here instead, you know, to entertain me. Ha! I'm frustrated and annoyed, but at the same time, what can you do? I have had some time to go to the gym, wander around shopping, enjoy Starbucks and clean my house a little, so it's not all bad. I have a hard time relaxing, but not a lot more that I can do!

I can't wait to get home! I was doing okay with it, but talking to my sister last night made me a bit sad about the whole thing. In the whole scheme of things I guess it's only 3 less days at home, but when you're only home two times a year for a few weeks, it seems like a lot... oh well. I'll be there soon enough! Crossing my fingers that the airports are all up and running by Thursday!