My journey back to South Bend fared unusually well considering that Delta pilots may have been on the verge of striking before my departure. I thought that my arrival back would have been a rude awakening to the arctic temperatures of the Bend.

But instead, I was kind of used to the frigid weather since the winter in Atlanta was one of the coldest in the last 20 years. I came back to my dorm in one piece, yet dreading the days to come that are sure to bring many hours of late night cramming and a drastic change of diet consisting largely of coffee and Mountain Dew.

My roomie, on the other hand had a not so pleasant experience with American Airlines. Her luggage somehow mysteriously disappeared and ended up being on another flight. Thankfully for her, it showed up in the wee hours of the morning.

During the first night back spent unpacking and rambling about the workload and the missing luggage, we suddenly came to realization that our fan was missing. Now this is not your average cream-white floor or window fan with a 12-inch propeller.

This is a state of the art, four-foot tall, seven inch wide, remote control, rotating fan. I loved that fan. It had a timer, you could set the mode to different air flow pressures, and it was definitely unique. Everyone visiting our room would eventually ask, "what is this thing?" And my roomie and I would proceed to rave about our ventilating wonder.

Because of the fan's unusual size, it became somewhat of a hassle since we had no where to place it except in front of the refrigerator. But now that Windy is gone — the name we so affectionately named him in his prime — we will definitely miss his presence and his cooling capacity.

What an impulse, to steal a fan. I mean even though it was a pretty expensive fan, according to my roomie, no rational person in my mind would want to steal one. And true, Lewis is one of the older dorms that isn't air conditioned, but to steal a fan to me is like wanting to steal a lamp, or a pencil sharpener or some other ordinarily stupid item.

Not to say that stealing nice things is a good idea, but if you're going to steal at least make it worth your while.

Who could be so callous and cruel so as to have ruined such a wonderfully pleasant relationship between two girls and their fan? Whoever took the fan, you're not a good thief. You somehow failed to snatch the remote on your way out.

One other thing, anyone so desperate to steal a fan in the middle of January is not on the sharp side, so my advice to them is to seek professional help before you end up stealing something major like a blow dryer.

• Missing: 4'1'' fan