The first time I visited K-dawg in San Diego, October 2007, I brought “fall in a bottle” to her. I did this by collecting lots of pine needles and fragrant leaves and pine cones and stuff and put them in this little vase with autumn colored ribbons tied around. It really did smell like Lawrence autumn, even if just for a short time. I thought it would be nice to bring some Kansas October to SoCal.

It’s probably too early, but I wish I could REALLY bottle up fall in this town and take it home with me. Not just the smells, but the sights, the way the leaves turn so beautifully here, the streets are just covered in red, orange, yellow, and brown. The sounds of the whistle blowing between classes. Who knew I would miss such an annoyingly loud steam whistle every hour? The buses running through campus, leaving trails of exhaust in their wake, crowded with dirty, sweaty, crabby students on their way to and from classes. Yeah, I miss that. Walking down Jayhawk Boulevard between classes, in a sea of thousands of other students coursing through that old and distinguished (and Wescoe-still ugly) architecture, always sure to see people I knew along the way. I did this almost every day in my first four years here.

My last three years in Lawrence, I could count the number of times I did that on one hand, as I was crowded up in Green Hall, it’s own strange, small community littered with high school gossip and adult responsibilities. But fall was always the same. That brilliant blue in the sky, contrasting so well with the golden leaves on the trees outside the law school, the crispness of the air, the smells of coffee and warm food emanating from the Burge.

Last autumn I came here for Homecoming in October. Everything after that was pretty much a bust, not because I wasn’t here anymore, but because I never got a chance to really BE and enjoy fall in the ICT.

This time will be different.

But it will never be here.