Airport shows full bars but no networks listed, not connected

I recently began having an issue where my MacBook Pro (mid-2012, running 10.9.2) loses the wireless connection. However, the Airport icon in the menu bar still shows full bars (as if I were connected), but no networks are listed in the drop down menu.

Our other computer (a 2008 MacBook) and phones (moto G and Nexus 5) remain connected, at the same time, nor have they any similar issue. So it appears to be an issue specific to my MacBook Pro.

When I try to turn the Wi-Fi off then back on in the menu bar to see if it will reconnect, the Airport icon goes empty when I click off, but it does not come back to show the bars when I click it back on, remaining 'empty'. Yet I in the drop-down menu I regain the option to 'Turn Wi-Fi Off,' though no networks are listed.

Also, I use this machine daily at work on a university network Wi-Fi and have not had any issues (yet).

I've run Disk Utility after running into this problem, and it instructs me to Repair the Disk in Recovery Mode (via restarting the computer with CMD+R). Doing this, and sometimes doing just a normal restart, so far brings the connection back as normal.

This happened for the first time last weekend, happened again a couple days later, then twice this morning. So it's not constant but is enough that I'm seeking help.

I've scoured the system.log but don't really know what I'm looking for, thus not sure what to paste in here that would be helpful.

Thanks.