Introduction

Before we get into this month’s wrap-up, I want to say that the photo above is my favorite monthly wallpaper yet! I was very happy with it and all of the fun elements just kept appearing on Pinterest and found their way straight to my digital cork board for the month. I have been doing monthly themed “cork board” wallpapers for Dylan and I since last August and I have really been enjoying making them. Except maybe when I’m a day or so late and Dylan is like “Where’s my new wallpaper???” 😂

This month went by slow for me. There were a few fun things that happened at the beginning of the month, but as I reflect on the middle to end of September, I struggled to stay motivated. It happens, though. I go through bursts of energy like putting a flame to tissue paper! Let’s go over the few interesting things I did get up to:

What I Read

Rappaccini’s Daughter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

I was in the mood to read a Gothic tale, and Rappaccini’s Daughter was a short one that caught my eye. I read The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne in high school and absolutely hated it. It was so boring I could barely read one of the long winded paragraphs without my eyes glazing over. This short piece of literature was much more bearable and was fun to read.

Shades of Gray: The Life and Times of a Free Family of Color on the Texas Frontier, by Jason A. Gillmer

I was deep in the trenches of researching my genealogy early in the month. I discovered that I am related to the Ashworth family on my mom’s side. They had their own law named after them, stating that they could stay in Texas as people of color and were exempt from an expulsion and enslavement law that had gone into effect in 1840. This paper was very informative and well written, and mainly covers the life around William Ashworth, which is the brother of my direct ancestor, James. Very cool.

What I Watched

Arcane (2021)

I kept getting YouTube Reels of people analyzing this show, so I gave in and watched it. I have never played League of Legends nor do I have any plans to, but this show was super good. The only character I liked was Vi, the others I don’t care for at all except maybe Ekko. My least favorite character is Jinx. Yeah, yeah, I know. And yes, even with all of the villains she is still my least favorite!

The Double (2013)

I don’t know why it took me three days to watch this movie in its entirety, but it did. It only runs for an hour and thirty minutes! Movies aren’t my thing, but even though I watched this movie in three parts, I did enjoy it. I believe Jesse stars in Vivarium, and that was a cool movie as well. Imagine a more confident clone of yourself shows up and takes over your life, but no one really seems bothered by it.

Silent Hill: Townfall (2026)

This is a video game, not a show or movie, but I watched it like it was one. Silent Hill: Townfall released September 24th, the perfect Silent Hill time. I watched the first two games through in September of last year, and then Silent Hill f shortly after. I really liked the old tech and the setting. Silent Hill 2, the OG version not the remake, is still my top favorite though.

Music

I went on a Kid Cudi kick in September, as well as an Asking Alexandria phase that has gone on since August.

Young Girls by Bruno Mars is a timeless song, it never gets old for me. Bruno Mars songs in general are sooo good.

Life

Hike

On September 4th, Tori and I woke up early and drove over to Lincoln Lake. It is a popular fishing spot for the small town and has a 4.5 mile hiking trail that encompasses it. Tori pushed herself to finish it all without me carrying her! She barely even wanted to lay down during our water and snack breaks. I plan on writing a longer post about the hike, including some “Field Notes”, so stay tuned for that!

We completed the hike in 3 hours, with a stop roughly between every mile so that Tori could get some water and rest. We made it back to the car before the heat really kicked our butts, but it was a great morning with just us and the deer.

Date

The next day after my hike, Dylan and I had a morning date. We usually go to Waffle House on Friday, but I’ve been wanting to check out a photography exhibit that has short hours in a small neighboring town so we adjusted our plans for Saturday. We woke up early, and instead of driving into Fayetteville on Kick Off day, we drove the opposite direction into Lincoln and checked out a small diner.

I have been there before for dinner, but it was both of our first time trying their breakfast. There were two seats open, right at the bar waiting for us. Dylan ordered a ham and cheese omelet with salsa, toast, and hash browns. I got my “usual” of a plate of just hash browns and a hot coffee. Why is diner coffee always so good? The waitress always ends up refilling my mug once or twice while Dylan shakes his head haha! Overall, it was a great change of pace.

After breakfast, we drove 6 minutes over to Cane Hill, a strip of a town preserved in time. Cane Hill is the location of the first Sunday school in Arkansas, as well as the second College established in the state by only one day. Our main town highway and the areas surrounding it are part of the Trail of Tears, so there is a lot of history here. We were given the overview of the town by a nice guide, and we were off on a self guided tour of the small museum.

There is a sense of pride in the way Cane Hill is portrayed, but it made me wonder why it never expanded. Cane Hill is comprised of a few trails, a few buildings, the college, and the cemetery. We learned that the civil war closed down the college, then the railroad was built through the neighboring towns, and finally in the 60’s the then college turned high school refused to desegregate, and the school closed and thus closed the chapter on Cane Hill’s growth.

Yes, the preservation of the town is cool, but is there really that much to be proud of? I am not so sure. I think the tone can be a bit more humbled. But that is just my opinion lol. They mention an indigenous girl dying and being buried here during the forced migration that was the trail of tears. I wanted to go to the cemetery to see if there was any sort of memorial for her, but it was too hot. On either a cooler or rainy day, I’ll take Tori on the historic trails and I will check out the cemetery.

Inside the little museum was an 1800s Post Office structure which you know I thought was cool!

The exhibit that I wanted to check out was next door, so we skipped over there and saw many photos of Arkansas during the Great Depression.

I am horrible at taking my own pictures, especially with the glare of the overhead lights. I tried to include some of my favorite people who were photographed.

The caption for this photo mentioned that this young man wanted to attend college. It makes me wonder what lives the subjects lived in the years after these photos were taken.

This photo was the one that was advertising the exhibit. The lawsuit was over the captioning of the image as “an Arkansas sharecropper’s family”, when in the hierarchy of agriculture, the family claimed they were tenant farmers. They took great offense to being called sharecroppers. This case led to captioning to be more strict for the photographers.

I found it interesting that none of the photographers displayed were from the South. It makes me wonder what perspective they shot the photos from and if they photographed things someone from the South wouldn’t or vice versa.

Genealogy

As I mentioned earlier, I had a feverish interest in completing my family tree for a week. I completed as much of my father’s side as I could find, and I started on my mom’s side and got caught up in stories of cowboys, natives, the wild French of New Orleans and “Mulattoes” of Texas. That is an outdated term for a person mixed with Caucasian, African, and Native roots and was still used on census records up until my great great grandma.

Saying great-great may seem like long ago, but considering I traced my paternal line to the 1300’s, two greats felt very recent to me. The fixation I had on every story or document I came across on each side of my family made me feel like I lived a hundred lives. I would dream about them at night! The photo I added was nowhere close to where I trailed off and started learning about South East Texas history, but I will pick it back up again soon.

Siblings

Aidan agreed to go with me on a hike around Lincoln Lake, and we woke up early and headed out as the sun was rising. He wanted to do the trail counter-clockwise, going the opposite direction for the first time. This would mean we would reach the nice lookout point of the lake way sooner.

The only problem was THE SPIDERS. There were so many webs with spiders sat right in the middle of them. If you weren’t paying good attention, you just walk face first into a huge black spider. Just to the lookout point, we were dodging invisible sticky strings left and right. This would be a trend that would persist the entire hike, and with me being the leader, I was the shield and web collector. About halfway through, I stepped through a web on accident and the spider swung back onto me and crawled into my pants :). Nature is so amazing!

I swung around a big stick in front of us for the rest of the hike, but it was fun. Every hike on that trail has been different, I swear there were no web assaults when I went with Tori.

My sister and I video called a couple of times and she showed me her cheer leading moves and we played her favorite game, Roblox. She won Dress To Impress almost every round, I’m just glad I wasn’t in last place. I don’t feel like paying to get the VIP clothing items lol.

Conclusion

Somehow an “uneventful” month turned into so many words! Every time I think a wrap-up will be short, I end up thinking they may be too long. Oh well, I like to yap and talk about the photos I took.

How was your September, did it go by slow like mine did? Let me know, and I will see you all tomorrow!