“The crickets felt it was their duty to warn every body that summertime cannot last forever. Even on the most beautiful days of the whole year – the days when summer is changing into fall – the crickets spread the rumor of sadness and change.” “Charlotte’s Web” by E.B. White.

After a brutal summer of painting, romance, writing letters, receiving letters, golf and reading (OK, so maybe it wasn’t that bad), fall comes like a fresh glass of water ready to cleanse away the good and bad memories of summer.

Fall in DeKalb is just spectacular. Suddenly, foliage that stuffs the trees drops to the ground, littering our landscape with a rainbow of brown and yellow. Local DeKalb natives rake the leaves into piles, or “jumping pit” as we referred to them when we were 12 years old.

The falls are so beautiful and so enchanting that they can only be done justice in an easy-to-write, last-minute bulleted list.

The following bulleted points mark my favorite part of fall:

1) Halloween: I’ve been enchanted with Halloween since the time when my good friend and I dressed up as a boxing nuns and went door-to-door beating old people for their wallets. Err, I mean …

2) We get to wear pants again: Far too many of these bleached-blonde women dress in revealing shorts that accentuate those lovely thongs. This is gross. Keep your underwear slingshot in your pants.

3) Sweaters: I have this J.Crew sweater, and it totally rocks. OK, so it might be a tad on the Freddy Krueger side, but it’s wool and it’s striped and it’s red and it rules … uh. Yeah.

4) NIU football: Ever since that loss to Toledo last semester, I’ve been counting the days until the Huskies blow another big chance. And I don’t have to wait much longer. They face off against No. 21 Alabama this weekend.

5) The Student Association starts up again: Ladies and gentlemen, grab your popcorn because the circus officially has landed in town. Watch and laugh as tomfoolery most likely will ensue.

6) I get to write sucky, simple bulleted lists and pass them off as credible pieces of work by sticking an E.B. White quote in there somewhere …