Howdy, howdy!  It’s mid-August and I have no idea what to write about, so I decided to look up and see if August had any interesting “month of” or “day of” things to celebrate.  You know the ones.  Like when your friends post on social media that they’re eating waffles because it’s “national waffle day” or whatever and you just want to know who decided that and why you never knew about it.  Those things.  And apparently August is much more than the month of stifling heat and increased mosquito attacks.  So, I decided to make a list of five things that I didn’t know August was the month of.

1. August is “happiness happens” month.  According to its description, the Secret Society of Happy People (which is a real thing, surprisingly) wanted to dedicate a day to the concept of choosing to be happy despite whatever problems may be making that difficult.  Since its inception, it has grown into a month-long thing.  It’s not about ignoring the bad stuff and negative feelings, but about trying to find the good things in life even when you’re overwhelmed.  Life sucks, but I didn’t die!  Or work was horrible, but I saw a butterfly at lunch.  Or whatever.  Positive thinking.  That kind of stuff.  It also encourages you to share your happy moments, to talk about them.

2. August is “romance awareness” month.  This one is about taking a hard look at your romantic relationship(s) and acknowledging whether or not you’re putting in the energy to maintain it(them) correctly.  It’s not about grand gestures and all that crap you read in romance novels, but it is about the small things.  Encouraging notes on hard days.  Holding hands.  Just the little things.  It all depends on how you and your partner(s) express your love.  Don’t forget the little gestures.

3. August is “national brownies at brunch” month.  Why?  Because someone wanted an excuse to eat more brownies.  But I don’t eat brunch, so I’ll have to eat brownies at some other point during the day.  I’ll also need someone to bring me brownies.  They aren’t something we keep around.

4. August is “national sandwich” month.  It’s also “national panini” month, which is just a toasted sandwich, so it’s kind of redundant.  But I’ve already had at least three sandwiches this month, so I guess it’s kind of fitting.  Four if you count hamburgers as sandwiches.  And now that I’ve been thinking about food, I’m hungry.  I wish I had a brownie.  Or an ice cream sandwich.

5. August is “Spinal Muscular Atrophy awareness” month.  Despite being diagnosed with SMA type 2 for years (my diagnosis changed to UCMD a while ago), I had no idea it had its own awareness month.  SMA is one of the more well-known Muscular Dystrophies and they’ve been making a good effort to stop its progression.  I haven’t looked into it lately, though, so I don’t know how well the treatments are working.  But SMA is a thing and you should be aware of it.

So, yeah.  I didn’t know these things existed.  What about you?  What are some weird “month of” or “day of” things that you’ve discovered?  Which ones do you celebrate?  As usual, feel free to share of them here or on my social media pages!