Dear Wanting Creativity,

Alice loves celebrating special times and accomplishments. Doing so plants positive memories, breaks up the routine day-to-day stuff, and shines a light on what's really important to us in this thing called life. A possible pitfall of planning an anniversary fete, birthday bash, or a New Year's Eve to ring in the new millennium can occur in our attempts to make them the end-all, most special, impressive occasions of the century. If the company, and not the setting or price tag, allows the celebration to live in infamy, then maybe simple ideas homespun from your heart are the ticket to making your one-year a perfect 10. Get your boyfriend involved in the planning if he's not already: this way, both of you will be invested in its outcome, not to mention the greater number of creative ideas that can come from a little two-way brainstorming. Enough said -- here are some ideas that you might adapt and even combine:

• Shop for and cook dinner together (something beyond beans and weenies would be nice).
• Make a picnic in the park... or in the living room.
• Write poems to each other and read them aloud after the nice candlelit dinner you just ate.
• Visit a museum and go to a concert (cheap tix are often available for students and just before showtime).
• Take in a romantic view from a skyscraper or mountaintop.
• Go on an adventurous day trip, or do something that neither of you would do alone: hiking, river rafting, or camping.
• Volunteer at a park clean-up or shelter by day, then treat yourselves to a nice dinner out at night.
• Rent your favorite movies and hold an all-night video-a-thon.

Happy Anniversary,

Alice

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