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What kinds of non-music sounds do you like to fall asleep to?

My husband and I are both creative writers, and a couple of years ago, when I was going through a frustrating patch, he instituted what he called “Storytime” where he told me stories through text messages from this universe we have created together as a way to help me deal with what was bothering me. After the incident was over, we kept Storytime going and started telling each other stories before we go to bed as a way to unwind after a long day. His voice so utterly relaxes me as we lay in each other’s arms that sometimes I wake up the next morning and ask him for a recap of Storytime because I fell asleep and don’t know how the story ended.

Besides alarms, what sounds do you associate with a particular time of day?

5:00 a.m. always comes to me in the sound of a male cardinal arriving for his breakfast. I live in a basement apartment, so putting seed on the ground just outside the window ledge attracts the birds. They always make their presence known while they eat, as if calling to their friends that there is fresh food waiting for them. The cardinals are the literal early birds and always arrive at the same time each morning. Next are the chipping sparrows and we even had a bluejay stop by the other morning – I didn’t recognize his strange warbling call so I looked out the window and was surprised to see him sitting there, eating the corn that was in the seed mix. My alarm isn’t set to go off until 6:00 but I’m generally awake well before then, listening to my feathered friends as they start their day. I’d much rather wake up to birds than an alarm any day.

What sounds (of any type) unliked by most people, do you like?

I like the sound of “peepers”, the tiny little tree frogs that raise such a ruckus this time of year. As mating season starts, the little buggers can get quite loud, to the point where I’ve had friends complain about them, but I don’t mind. It’s all part of living in the country and since I like to take walks at dusk with my husband, it’s like having a natural symphony accompany us on our moonlit strolls. I would be far more bothered if I didn’t hear them this time of year because that would be a bad environmental sign. As it is, they started peeping earlier this year than I am used to, which gave me a moment of pause.

In your downtime at home, what is usually the predominant sound?

It depends on the time of year, if it’s when my husband is home in the summer, it’s usually the sound of him typing, as he has a mystery fanfiction series he works on at night. If it’s during football season when he’s not home, I generally put the t.v. on and turn it down low so it’s just background noise while I cross stitch or write in my journal.

How do you feel about the sound of your own voice?

As a musician/singer, I am extremely self conscious of my voice. Back during the pandemic, our church choir had to record our parts at home and our director then mixed them into a recording he could play during the service, and that was brutal. I refused flat out to listen to myself and just asked him to let me know if I needed to re-record my part. We’ve had some discussions since then and he said that nobody really likes their voice, but that nobody really hears their voice as it actually sounds either. Because our ears are on the side of our head, our voice is distorted from what other people hear, which is why you sound different on a recording than in “real life” when you’re talking to someone. I’ll take his word for it and hope I don’t sound like I think I do when I sing.