This photo reminds me of one of my favorite holiday movies, “Home Alone” – a gorgeous front stoop festively decorated for the holidays with just the right amount of wintry goodness to make it feel like Christmas. This photo is charming, warm, inviting and the reason that I’m still in Paris. STUCK in Paris.

I apologize in advance for what may come across as whiny childish venting. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Cédric and I went to his parents on Saturday to celebrate his birthday and to have an early Christmas lunch since he and I would be leaving for Philly on the 21st. We also had to bring our baby, Cali (cat) to their place as they would be babysitting her for the duration of our vacation. We had a lovely afternoon, full of eating and laughing followed by more eating and a subsequent stomach ache. In theory, we could’ve booked a flight for Philly on Sunday but we thought to ourselves, we’ll take the day Sunday to clean up the apartment and pack our bags tranquillement, as Cédric likes to say after everything (we’ll watch the movie tranquillement, we’ll run errands tranquillement… ). During this weekend, the east coast was hit with a blizzard. This is the risk of traveling during the holidays, that I understand.

Let me backtrack. I always fly USAirways. Philly is a hub and *knock on wood* I’ve never encountered any serious problems. When we were reserving our tickets back in September, Cédric, an Air France devotee, saw that a Delta flight was slightly less expensive for this trip than USAirways. Really, he wanted miles for flying with Delta. Anyway, fastforward to Monday, the day of our departure. I woke up at 8am, checked online and saw that our Delta flight was cancelled. This isn’t inherently the problem. I know that they can’t pull planes out of thin air to leave from Paris when they were never able to leave the US in the first place. I also understand that there were many cancellations since Friday and therefore those passengers are rerouted with priority. What IS frustrating, is that the same Delta flight to Philadelphia on Sunday the 20th, DID take off, granted with a 2 hour delay, but it did leave. All USAirways flights left over the weekend and Monday as well.

So where are we? Stuck in Paris because the first flight they could put us on is XMAS EVE. I should add that this flight isn’t direct and has us transfer in Atlanta. But what time are we scheduled to arrive in Philadelphia at the end of all this? MIDNIGHT. So we leave Paris at 16h on the 24th and arrive in Philly at midnight which is, technically, xmas morning.

I’m admittedly someone who doesn’t handle change very well. Perhaps I shouldn’t say that, I handled moving to another country, friends leaving, new family members among other things, but uprooted plans and traditions eat away at me. I felt powerless. But the worst of all was Delta’s less than desirable customer service. I know they can’t do anything about the weather or put us on a non existent flight but when I get upset and ask her to check ANY POSSIBLE combination of routes, through any city, and she yells at me and tells me to stop getting emotional, that’s when I lose it. And PS, you don’t interrupt a customer. I’ve worked in retail and customer service, you won’t get anywhere with a customer if you interrupt them.

Furthermore, Delta still has planes that do not have individual screens. For the amount of money we’re paying for these flights, I want my own screen. Get out of the 1990’s Delta.

So here we are, December 23rd, finding ways to pass the time and not think about the risks involved with traveling on xmas eve. I’ve since called Delta and tried to see if there were any cancellations that could put us on an earlier flight tomorrow, but no luck yet. It may be infantile but this Jew wants her Christmas.