Offbeat celebrations sprinkle almost every day of the calendar year, and March 12^th is no exception. In addition to Alfred Hitchcock Day, tomorrow is also Katie Fisher Day. We’ll come back to that.

Before we do, mark your calendar now for Friday, which is the 232^nd anniversary of the discovery of Uranus. Let’s pause, shall we, so you can insert a discovering your anus joke here.

(pause)

March has a number of offbeat holidays and anniversaries, and maybe you’ve celebrated a few of them whether you intended to or not. This month kicked off with National Peanut Butter Lovers Day. If your student goes to a school that still allows peanut butter (and as an asidem, does it seem smart or equitable to ban peanut butter but waive vaccination requirements?), or if you’re a sack luncher at work, then you helped propel this one onto the map. The first day of March is also the anniversary of the Peace Corps, which took its first steps in 1961 when JFK signed an executive order for a trial mission. Snaps for that organization, because it’s incredibly awesome. (snaps)

If you’re into the same old same old, then March 2^nd is your day: National Old Stuff Day to recognize the same old stuff you do every day. I don’t personally need a day to recognize the same old stuff I do every day because, well, I just do it without celebration. Getting kids and hubs out the door with a smile and a prayer, walking the pooch while I talk to God, licking the floors clean again (did I mention we decided to sell our house?), chasing the deadline clock at work, and being the shipping and receiving department for family life is a snapshot at my same old same old. So yeah, there’s that.

On a patriotic note, March 3^rd — National Anthem Day — deserves a resounding round of applause. I love this great country, and I hope you do, too. I’m THAT person with a tear when the anthem is sung at sporting events. And I’m also THAT person who’ll knock the hat off the chap that ignores “the rules.” While I join the crowd in singing along, I also think about the sacrifices others have made on my behalf, even though they didn’t know me, and then I think about my two brothers and uncles and cousin and father-in-law and Tommy Chenault from my little south Texas hometown who served our country. To honor them, I keep my hand over my heart until the music ends. Sometimes I hold it there just a little longer.

Moving on.

March 7^th is Alexander Graham Bell Day. He’s the guy that patented the invention formerly found in most homes until recently: the telephone. If you’re younger than 30, you probably thought AGB was the graham cracker guy. No. He. Wasn’t. The brainy guy’s celebration is followed by a weirder-than-weird one: National Panic Day, which “encourages you to indulge all of your deepest fears and let loose a rampage of unbridled hysteria.” So wait. Does that mean I should wear a sports bra in public? That might unbridle hysteria BY the public, which defeats the purpose of that celebration. Arg.

And that brings us back to March 12^th and tomorrow’s celebration: Katie Fisher Day. Katie was the younger sister of comedian Matt Fisher, and she baked cookies for him every week for the four years he was away at college. Katie, at the age of 24, was killed in a car accident in 2010. Her brother declared “Katie Fisher Day” to encourage others to follow Katie’s example and send cookies to someone they love.

I’m walking the talk on this one, my friends. There are two bags of fresh-baked chocolate cookies headed out the door tomorrow morning. One bag is tucked in my daughter’s lunch tote with a note about Katie and her cookies, and I chose gal peep because this kid can rock the recipe world with her intimidating mixer and savvy cooking skills. The second cookie bag is for our pup pal’s dog groomer. I love Myriel (the groomer) so much. And she loves my pup pal. And us. I call her “friend” because she truly is one.

Confession time. I bought the cookie dough at the grocery store, and even stooped so low as to buy the ones that are already made into little squares that you just bake. In my world, that’s hard-core cooking.

I obviously didn’t know Katie Fisher. But here’s to her brother for allowing his sister’s spirit to live on through cookies and kindness and calories.