I tried to copy a bird call with the synth and got something closer to a squeaky shopping cart, which raises the important question of whether the shopping cart is also doing its best. I can hear the pitch moving in the recording, but when I copy just that movement it doesn't sound alive at all. there's a rough little beginning to each note that I keep missing. maybe I'm paying too much attention to the obvious part. my sister listened and said the second version sounded angrier, which was not an available setting but is somehow correct. now I want to know what changed between those two versions and I didn't write down the patch.

the girl from birding club sent me a recording because she thought I'd want to hear it, and I was ridiculously happy before I even pressed play. not a rare bird or anything, just a sound she'd noticed on her way home. I've sent her approximately a million things, including at least one video that required an explanation longer than the video, but this felt different because I wasn't there suggesting she record it. wanted to answer something normal and ended up typing three paragraphs about the call. deleted two. then she asked if I was free for a walk, so now I'm rereading one very ordinary sentence like there's going to be a quiz.

spent most of the walk trying to hear a bird above the creek, which apparently means holding my head at an angle for twenty minutes without realizing it. when I finally looked straight ahead my neck felt weirdly tight on one side, and my mom would absolutely have something to say about that. the rest of me felt good though, especially after being folded over the workbench all afternoon. I could feel the cooler air inside my sleeves and the ground changing from pavement to softer dirt under my shoes. got home hungry enough to eat dinner before telling everyone what I heard (unprecedented, according to my sister).