Celebrating January before it disappears

The days of 2011 are whisking away. This year is threatening to melt one day into another, leaving uncertain evidence of a week, a month, or even a year, if we're not more intentional about doing the “important” stuff of life, like showing kindnesses to one another.
I'm not great at getting greetings to people on the timely basis. A birthday or anniversary can pop up before I have an acknowledgement in the mail.
I felt even worse about my belated greetings when I was responsible for sending them out for Mom in her last years.
My birthday's one of the extended family's first ones, so that day was a brain-jogger to prompt handling 2010 better. I ran a plan past Mom, and she approved it.
With a little mid-January insight, I “beat the system” by buying one birthday card for every family on the list. On the envelopes, I put every family member's name and included a small monetary gift for each birthday and anniversary.
I sent those cards out mid-January, assuring families this was their best hope for a timely greeting since I was responsible for Mom's cards.
I also suggested each person call Mom on their special day, since her eyes kept her from doing that, and since she would be thinking of them and likely praying for them as memories of her times with them came to mind.
Mom appreciated the calls she received, and was glad to be reminded her loved ones had already received her card. I was relieved of trying to get greetings to about 30 loved ones. My “commemorating special days” solution for 2010, however, is apparently useless in 2011. I've already messed up.  
Having heard, Saturday, a program discussing health problems from electromagnetic radiation from recently touted “smart” electric and gas meters our country seems eager to install, I started researching to write about that for this column.
You have all seen those “Before You Dig” signs, warning to check before shoveling. Well, I apparently dug imprecisely, because I also landed on, or a sidebar item made me navigate to, a list of January's calendar of special days.
For example, Sunday was National Pie Day (NPD). Paul certainly would not have minded having a pie on hand to celebrate. When I told him it was NPD, he wondered where I had his pecan or coconut cream pie for him.
I should remember not to tell everything I know, and I ought not to have lingered.  
The 23rd was also “National Handwriting Day”, with John Hancock's signature as an example for us to follow.
What else had I missed?
The previous week had celebrated Kid Inventor Day, Rid the World of Fad Diets and Gimmicks Day, Tin Can Day, Get to Know Your Customer Day, National Hugging Day, and Answer Your Cat's Question Day.
At least I don't have a cat sulking about my forgetting that.
Yesterday, Monday, was both Belly Laugh Day and National Compliment Day. I'm hoping those two don't necessarily go together.
Today is Speak Up and Succeed Day and A Room of One's Own.
The rest of the week has somber reminders about victims of the Holocaust, Nazism, and the Challenger disaster.  
A debatably brighter note “celebrates” the dental drill, but who wouldn't think a day in January should go to Mozart, another to the toilet guy, and, on Friday, the official Fun at Work Day.
That last one, the Fun at Work Day, should be, like Christmas, true every day, right?
Marge Warder is a freelance reporter and a columnist for the Red Oak Express. She can be contacted at mawarder@yahoo.com.