A little late on my September review because I've been working hard on my Halloween site! I am hoping to launch it tomorrow evening. I have plans today to go Halloween browsing (inspiration for making my own decor) and to watch some horror movies with friends so I won't be wrapping up the last legs of work until tomorrow.

It's hard to look back on September in detail once October has started so here are some highlights.

Health

I took walks each weekend day all month instead of pressuring myself to get to it during the work week. So far this is a super successful pilot! I walk at least 45 minutes for each.

Speaking of the heart doctor, I had my yearly follow-up and EKG, and we learned that my heart is ENLARGED. This is because of how much love I have for everything. I care way too much. It's definitely not from stress. We've gotten the results of further testing (a sonogram for my heart baby) and everything looks fine, but now we have something to monitor I guess.

Because I went apple picking twice in September I did really well with eating my fruits and veggies this month. Fall has many protein-packed seasonal treats, too: soups and chilis and flavored steaks. I've eaten really well and mindfully though per usual after 4-5 weeks of amazing body self-care I binged lots of ice cream and cookies in the last week. Well whatever. I'm not trying to beat myself up for things like that anymore. The focus is on consistency over time, not perfection.

Oh, I had a weird moment at the doctor's sitting in the waiting room. They had ABC news on the TV with the words CHICAGO BRACING FOR POSSIBLE FEDERAL TAKEOVER scrolling across the bottom, and an older woman and I were there alone browsing our phones waiting for the doctor to call us in, as if everything was fine. It felt like the beginning of a natural disaster movie where there are reports of small earthquakes in a place not on a faultline, where the main family is getting ready for school and barely paying attention to the building rumbles of uncertainty. I guess we truly are just out here doing day-to-day normal things during all this.

Walking path through a green forest with the sun shining through the trees Walking path through a green forest with brown leaves on the ground on either side

Drumming

I've leveled up quite a bit in the last few months in terms of my drumming skill and technique, and in September I leveled up even more! As I go through my owned music library (a never-ending project that will probably take several years) I've been making playlists here and there.

One of them is a list of songs I could probably figure out how to play on drums, if I took the effort. These are almost exclusively all songs that I listened to repeatedly for hours in my formative years (maybe: 11-17 years old). When I was 19 I dated someone who listened to a wider variety of music and got into a lot of new stuff, but as a result I wasn't limited to my small collection of music anymore, and somehow spending less hours with a single song or album. (I think also the technology I used changed around that time - went from CDs to an MP3 player, which encouraged shuffle mixes, and you were not bound to skipping through a single disc).

To test it out, I set up my practice pad on the couch (on top of some blankets, very professional and definitely good posture too) and played along with the songs, surprised to find out that I was getting them down pretty accurately. Just a year ago I would have to listen to a part on repeat, then try it, and continue switching back and forth until I got it. Now I can almost play it as I'm hearing it.

Only on the practice pad, and with no feet. I couldn't do this at a drum kit. It's still a big level up though!

I ate over 50 apples in September.

I don't know how many apples I got in total, but I went apple picking twice, once at the beginning of the month and again the last weekend. The first weekend was grossly hot and after picking a basket full of them, I had to abandon my friends in search of water and almost passed out. The second weekend was much cooler and though I got less apples, I brought home many vegetables from the farm market and a pumpkin from the patch.

It's not my first major fall activity (the first activity is bringing out pumpkins into my seasonal decor at home) but it's the first social one so apple picking always feels like the outwards "start of the season," separate from my internal reflections and musings.

Zoomed in apple tree showing several red apples hanging Rows of apple trees in a field Collection of pumpkins in a patch outside Tall roundish pumpkin sitting in a house Bowl of chili with apples and cucumbers

Finished a Year of BINGO!

Speaking of seasonal musings, over the last year I made a BINGO card for each season to encourage myself to actively engage in more seasonal activities. I will be making a page about this activity, including all my BINGO boards, and putting it up on MCKB if you're interested!

In the next set of seasons I'll be doing some nature journaling, which I guess I should start soon...

William Fischer Frog

I painted this frog guy I mentioned a few posts ago. His name is William Fischer Frog. I'm very excited to make more little sculpey guys, this was not difficult at all and made for a small and satisfying weekend creative project.

Handmade green frog sitting on top of a purple and yellow mushroom

Accessibility in Websites

I also spent a large part of the month thinking intensively about accessibility. This is because I work at an online university and we have an April 2026 deadline to get our course content up to speed and compliant with WCAG 2.1 Level AA (I don't work at this college but the article is pretty thorough). Since I have to think about it at work, I'm starting to think about it more outside of work, too. I love when something like this happens where a technique applies across the board, and not just at work: it's an opportunity for me to improve how I interact with people and post on the web!

I've started drafting a few post ideas to share my approach and some things to learn for beginners like me, but I probably won't get serious about editing and sharing it until next month. It's an incredibly important topic worth my time and investment but I'm currently focused on Halloween. That's how it goes for all things in October! It's like my life is put on pause for spooky focus.

Halloween Timeline

For those unaware (probably everyone), I am a spooky365 person. I live in the mindset of "spooky season," because scary shit happens more than one month a year. There's a lot that goes into this which I dive into on my TBD Halloween site, but suffice to say, my "official spooky season" every year goes from June to December.

My spooky season comes in stages. It starts in June because that is when I start hating my life and everything about it due to the heat. Staring the year's spooky season then is what gets me through summer. Also, externally, retail Halloween begins and you can carve watermelons for Summerween.

My birthday is in August, and thus I've claimed it as the time to begin decorating for Halloween. I start inside with non-fall Halloween stuff that creeps in through my house. As spooky365, I already have a lot of what people would consider to be "Halloween decor" out as "normal home decor." Some of that gets put away for the season for my true Hween decor to replace it. Most of my decor creates added clutter, which I like for a seasonal atmosphere. I am not a minimalist.

I start watching my spooky movies for the season in August, too. This continues through December, though my Letterboxd list usually only includes movies watched through October. This is partially to make it an actionable list for others who want to watch spooky movies for Halloweentime but don't want to watch Thanksgiving or Christmas themed movies... but also because I am not interested in double-tracking all my watches for several months, just enough to capture the spirit.

Usually by the end of August I have mapped out who is going to get Halloween mail, bought all my cards, and started addressing the envelopes. It takes all of September to finish my spooky mail. Most years I'm still working on them going into October, but I try to get the majority in the mail the first weekend of the month. (True to form, this is happening now - I still have about 10 left to write and decorate before I can send.)

Thus, over the last month I've watched many spooky movies and TV shows. With this kind of focus there isn't a lot of room for thinking big thoughts. Or things like Weird Web October, which I wanted to do, but I didn't want to put aside my Hween site for it. Maybe next year!

I also put out my fall Halloween decor (pumpkins and harvest things), and now all the decor is officially out! Supreme Halloween moods going on here!

Spirit Halloween banner on top of an old JoAnns location
Halloween decor on the side of a street (taken from the car POV)
Calico cat on a bed with white ghost print sheets

Links and Things

Wendy's sign that says: Misfortune awaits lucky you