Where's Your Spark Now?

it's been a decent amount of time since my last post. that's mostly due to the fact that my creativity has been a little lazy the past week and a half. i have the usual things to report from my humble apartment in urbania. classes, professors, workouts, homework, guitar, etc. but my creative juices seem to be flowing at the moment, so i think i'll just run with that.

my parents and i left at around 6 in the morning for los angeles on the 7th, to bring me back to my current existence and to watch my brother's swim meet here at usc. as we left in the darkness of the early morning, or not-so-early, perspectives being accounted for, i sat staring out of the backseat window, it being to dark to read. i became gradually aware of something happening around me, outside. there is something intangible about the qualities of the early morning hours. i was jolted back to my high school days when i would jerk from a chlorine and aching-muscle-induced sleep at 4:45 a.m. for swim practice and drive the eight or so miles to the pool. there was always something about the atmosphere on those early drives. the streets were deserted, save for a few solitary sets of headlights passing in the swirling mist or glowing red taillights far off down shaw or ashlan. the streetlights reflected on the wet asphalt, shattering into glimmering streams of red and green light with an intensity that was never seen during daylight, or even in the evening, when bright, white-hot headlights dampened their impact. the air was cold and biting, but when i pulled it into my lungs it spread to the depths of my body, filling and swelling my chest with its pure, chilling intensity. ingrained in these sensations was the feeling that it all belonged to me, the stillness of the glistening streets and damp air, that it all was connected to my body and its quiet power was pouring through my skin and filling me with the strength to face the slowly rising sun.