As planned, I cleaned my room today. With the help of the Barenaked Ladies and a (very unusual) desire to clean, I really did a number on it - I even polished the linoleum floors. I put out a rug that had previously been stored under my bed, along with some light curtains, and I like the result - it makes the room warmer.

Of course, the cleaner I use smells good coming out of the bottle, but 10 minutes later the chemicals get to you, and you can think is "Man - I really need to get that smell OUT of here." So my window's wide open and inviting the breeze in (but not bugs. Bugs are not invited.)

As I'm sitting here, I'm looking over my fall quarter schedule, making changes and shoving my physics quiz section around to make room for a German proctoring class. I look at my visual schedule, and wince at what this will do to my Wednesdays - four straight hours of class? And then a lab in the afternoon? Grr. But then I think of what those empty spaces on that visual schedule are going to mean. Eating in the HUB, talking to friends in the Quad, reading the Daily, working in a lab, drinking coffee around campus... and then of course, there are the empty spaces not shown on my schedule. Ah, Seattle nightlife, and especially in the fall: football games, Apple Cup, the bars, the house parties, the movie nights, the friends, the fun, the laughter.

I look out the window. Grey clouds partially obscure a demure pink-colored sky, and somewhere the sun is sinking below the horizon. A breeze nudges its way past my "new" curtain and greets my cheek, and all at once I feel like I'm back in Seattle in the autumn. A quick sensation, lasting no more than a fraction of a second. But it was a nice one nonetheless.

Maybe it was just all the reminders of life at UW - reviewing my schedule, running degree audits, listening to Death Cab. But I think it's telling me that I will be ready to go back and resume life in Seattle - as scary as it may sound to me right now.