Thanks, amma & beverly, for your good wishes! You don't have to be Jewish to wish someone a happy holiday, just like it doesn't have to be your birthday to wish someone a happy birthday.
quiltncrazy, no, you do not have until January 1 to get into trouble. The idea is to start being good on the New Year, yes, but January 1 doesn't have a Day of Atonement following it 10 days later, the way Rosh Hashanah does. So you be good!
And btw, Yom Kippur isn't for repenting for not keeping New Year's resolutions. You spend the ten days between the Jewish New Year and Yom Kippur asking forgiveness from all the people you've sinned against during the past year, fast on the actual day and somewhere in there cast off your sins and begin anew, cleansed. I really was misusing it when I said it gave me more time to screw up. Like you said, goofy!