Valentine's Inspired Creativity (now with pics)

I had a most interesting Valentine's Day this year...

My friend, Ben, invited me to a Valentine's/80th Birthday dinner at his neighbors' house. He lives across the street from Aggie, an 84-year old artist, and Carl, who was a Tucson city worker for 32 years and turned 80 last night. They've been married for 60 years.

Every year they have a big dinner party with all of their friends. Ben warned me in advance that although we were at the "cool" table, the average age was approximately 70 years old.

As you can see, he was correct...

One of the more interesting things I discovered during dinner was that the lady in the patterned jacket in the blue folding chair went to Miami University in Ohio, like me, only about 40 years earlier.

Here's Ben & a lady named Suzie, who used to own a kids' book store in town...

... and our tasty buffet dinner, with some of Aggie's art in the background. We also sat with a prison warden, a harlequin romance novelist (the warden's wife... ha!), and a veterinarian.

We all had to craft Valentines before dinner (there's nothing like glue gunning with a crew of 78-year olds), and hands down, this man was the winner...

... an engineer and Valentine creator extraordinaire. Seriously, his 3-D effort was pretty impressive.

As a comparison, check out my OK-but-not-nearly-as-good attempt...

... which I slaved over for at least 30 minutes before dinner. Ben helped me come up with some of the sayings on my mini paper hearts, like "eat me" and "booty train." Carl, Aggie, and their friends might be a little older than us, but they're pretty liberal.

Speaking of creativity, I have been introduced recently to one of the web's best ever sites, called "Learning to Love You More," which is the brainchild of artist & screenwriter Miranda July, who I really admire. I was so inspired by the great ideas on this website that I've decided to become a regular contributor.

Tonight I created and submitted my entry for "Assignment #63: Make an Encouraging Banner," which hopefully will be posted in the next day or two.

Here's my banner to myself (and all of you)...

I've always loved this song by the Beatles, and my dad used to play the Abbey Road album all the time when I was a kid so this song has a lot of nice memories for me. Plus, I hung the banner above the big picture window in my living room/bedroom, where I am greeted by the Tucson blue sky when I open my shades every day, right after I wake up.

Happy day...