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Introducing Suzie Ivy: The Bad Luck Officer

Wednesday, April 4th, 2012

SUZIE IVY

When I was forty-four years old, I experienced a run of bad luck that culminated with a serious accident on my horse leaving me with a broken hip. Add this to a major midlife crisis, empty nest syndrome, and a slow steady weight gain of more than forty pounds and you will understand that I was in a real funk.

When I was able to put my walker aside and make a slow unassisted stroll, I found myself staring at a community bulletin board and reading a poster which advertised a police position at our local department. The key words that caught my eyes were, “No age is too old.”

I started exercising, eating less and striving toward a nearly forgotten teenage dream. I turned forty-five years old, passed all the department requirements and went to the police academy. Against all odds, I passed the rigorous physical and psychological torture to become the first female officer in the small Arizona town where I live.

I am now fifty years old and our first female detective. My daily shift consists of major felony cases including homicide with my specialty being sex crimes. I’ve written two books about my true-life adventures and write a weekly blog post at http://badluckdetective.com about the humorous side of my job.

I’m a menopausal woman with a badge and a gun. I can’t think of a better place than Oops50 to meet other women who are achieving their dreams or looking for inspiration to take life by the horns and make their mark.

Oops50 puts a smile on my face as I see what incredible women are achieving regardless of age and sometimes in spite of it. If the space program is brought back, my goal for age sixty-five is to be an astronaut. What could possibly stop me?

BAD LUCK OFFICER

Tags: badluckofficer, oops50suzieivy, suzieivy, women's journeys, womenover50, womenover50blogs, womenpoliceofficersover50
Posted in Aging, Beautiful Women >50, Books, Entertainment, Getting Older, Main, Other Voices | 4 Comments »

Sadhvi Sez: What a Day for a Daydream

Friday, March 23rd, 2012

CLOUDS

With my sun in Pisces and living right on my Neptune line, you’d think that I’d be a daydreaming fool. But no, I cannot even take a little catnap in the afternoon! There is just too much to DO!

I remember how much I liked to color with crayons as a kid, and how I would lay down in the grass and look up in the sky for long periods of time. Now, baking (more so than cooking meals) takes me to places that are nice, and meditating is good because it is going inside, but it is not often enough. I occasionally allow myself time to paint, and get into the zone of no-mind, but again, it just isn’t often enough.

I tend to think it’s because of the amount of my day I spend on “the computer”. And the fact that I now “multi-task”, which has only started within the last couple of years.
So when I read an article from the Huffington Post site that says the latest research shows that a wandering mind helps the memory, I was thrilled. What an interesting post! Here’s an excerpt from that article:

Adam Gazzaley, a University of California San Francisco neuroscientist who studies the mind and distraction, wasn’t surprised by the results.

“I have been thinking more and more about our external environment and our internal environment,” he said. “We feel like we live in an external environment because we interact with the world. But we also have a dynamic and rich internal environment.”

Results are indicating, “there may be consequences” as we jam more and more stimulus into our heads, without taking a break to simply contemplate or daydream, Gazzaley said. “There are costs to multitasking and not pausing.”

Previous studies have shown that multi-taskers are more distracted and stressed.

“It is up to us to slow down enough to make informed decisions,” Gazzaley continued. “I think there is a growing tendency to feel that if it exists,” he said of media in all its forms and omnipresence, “I might as well use it all at the same time. But just because it exists, and is cool, does not mean it has to all be used simultaneously.”

So now that it’s proven that it’s perfectly OK to space out and to take mental break during the day, I feel more and more people will begin to enjoy life – hooray!
So take a moment to listen to the following song from the Lovin’ Spoonful, and enjoy where it takes you.

Tags: daydreaming, huffingtonpostdaydreaming, lovinspoonful, oops50daydreaming, sadhvisez, women growing older, womencrones
Posted in Beautiful Women >50, Entertainment, Health Tips, Home, Main, Music, Sadhvi Sez | 3 Comments »

Oop50: In Praise of Poetry

Monday, March 5th, 2012

JANE

I’ve been thinking about poetry—and how it can change your life or at least change the way you view your life. What got me started thinking about this today was remembering a story that my sister told me years ago about a teacher of hers in Germany, a man who, during World War II, was forced to spend years in a hard labor camp. He told her class that one of the things that kept him sane in that horrible situation was reciting to himself all the poems he had memorized as a child in school. That story has stayed with me through the years—and made me want to memorize poems whenever I could. (It was always in my thoughts when I was raising kids, making me worry about how seldom they had memorization assignments. Memorizing poetry seems to be a lost art, except in poetry slams!)

But thinking about that story today also made me think about the poems I have in my head that have carried me through difficult times and wonderful times. There is, for instance, W. H. Auden’s“In Memory of W.B. Yeats,” which helped me deal with the death of a beloved high school English teacher with such lines as, “What instruments we have agree /The day of his death was a dark, cold day”, and “Earth, receive an honored guest: / William Yeats is laid to rest. / Let the Irish vessel lie /Emptied of its poetry.”

W. H. Auden

Or there is Anne Sexton’s “The Fortress,” whose lines kept coming back to me when my children were little: “Child,/ what are you wishing? What pact/are you making?/ What mouse runs between your eyes? What ark/can I fill for you when the world goes wild?”

Louis MacNeice

Or there is Louis MacNeice’s incredible long poem, “Autumn Journal,” which I could never hope to memorize, but parts of which have come as close as anything to shaping my philosophy of life, such as this one: “None of our hearts are pure, we always have mixed motives. / Are self deceivers, but the worst of all /Deceits is to murmur ‘Lord, I am not worthy’/ And, lying easy, turn your face to the wall.”

Anne Sexton

Nowadays, as I feel myself getting older in body but trying to stay young in spirit, I find myself turning more and more to e.e. cummings’ wonderful “you shall above all things be glad and young,” with those incredible last lines: “I’d rather learn from one bird how to sing/than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance.”

e.e.cummings

I’d love to hear from you readers about poems that have meant something to you.

Tags: Anne Sexton, art, dealing with grief, E. E. Cummings, elderwomenwriters, Louis MacNeice, Poetry, W. H. Auden, women over 50, womenwritersover50
Posted in Aging, Art, Books, Entertainment, Spirituality, World | 4 Comments »

Oops50: Sadhvi Sez: Remembering the Monkees

Saturday, March 3rd, 2012

I was one with Elvis when I was about 8 or 9. It was in a dream, and boy, did it feel real. Not the sexually acrobatic kind of oneness, no, it was a true melting of souls. I can still remember how delicious it felt to merge with a human being. It was so good, and truly, I don’t even think I knew who Elvis really was. I do remember my Mom listening to Jerry Vale and Peggy Lee a lot, and my Dad liked Elvis, but I didn’t realize what a phenomenon he was back then. I must have been picking it up via the collective consciousness.

But then again, I also had dreams of being dissolved with God, you know, the Almighty. I guess you could say that I have a bit of the devotee in me, and secretly long to become one with the Universe. Still. Or maybe it was just part of the Path of merging and melting which would eventually lead me to find my Guru.

What brought all this on? Well, hearing that Davy Jones, one of the Monkees, passed away this week, made me take a little trip back in time, remembering their music, which I really liked. I don’t want to say “loved”, since it wasn’t really used then like it is now – the word, love, I mean. You know, these days, it’s like: I love my iPhone, I love my iPad, I love so-and-so’s chocolate cupcakes, etc. It’s interesting to think back to the way people talked, and instead of saying how much you loved everything that you liked, or how awesome everything is that you think is neat, you kind of just kept it to yourself and savored it.

Anyways, even though I wasn’t in love with Davy, his death made me remember how much I really liked their music. In fact, I had all of their albums, played them over and over again, and knew all the words to all of their songs. I watched them every week for many years on TV, probably not missing an episode. So for what it’s worth, I wanted to share my favorite song from the Monkees. RIP Davy Jones.

Tags: davyjones, elvis, jerryvale, mature women over 50, Monkees, peggylee, womenandmusic, womencrones
Posted in Aging, Entertainment, Getting Older, Main, Music, Sadhvi Sez | 5 Comments »

Oops50: To Cruise or Not to Cruise

Thursday, February 16th, 2012

Moi Zip Lining

The idea of a cruise first came to me in a dream while my husband was recuperating from a hip replacement last year. I dreamed about being waited on hand and foot and not having to wash dishes, do laundry, cook or even think about cooking. So, after my Dad passed away last April, my sisters and I decided to take a cruise with our husbands as a way of spending time together and not having to work at it. And since my Dad loved cruises, we settled on a cruise for our journey together.

Norwegian Star

We boarded the Norwegian Star in Tampa Bay (Feb. 5-12^th) and sailed to Honduras, Belize, and the beautiful beaches of Costa Maya, and Cozumel in Mexico. I have to admit, right from the beginning, I was struck by the customer service. For example, when we first boarded the ship, it seemed like thousands of people were boarding with us and not only was the process quick and organized, the staff smiled all the way through it and were amazingly friendly – nothing like the airport scene where personnel often act like they are doing YOU a favor. Everyone I came into contact with on the ship seemed to have one priority – to make sure all passengers have a comfortable, relaxing, and fun time. If the crew was faking it, they did a great job.

What did I like? I loved sitting on my private balcony listening to the ocean and keeping the door slightly ajar at night so I could hear the sound of the sea while falling asleep. I loved sitting on the upper deck in the quiet zone reading, uninterruptedly, Deborah Reed’s new novel, Carry Yourself Back to Me.

And, I loved the excursions on land. We zip lined in the rain forest in Belize and later with headlamps on, we floated in tubes through the Mayan cave system. Other days we relaxed on the gorgeous beaches sipping margaritas and pina coladas.

Coupe Car Cozumel

And when we were at sea, there was the spa with hot tubs, hydrotherapy pools, and cushiony lounge chairs looking out at sea. Of course there is the dining and endless buffets culminating in the last night’s chocolate buffet. And, should you get bored, there are endless musical shows that aren’t too bad.

Chocolate Buffet

What didn’t I like? Just too many darn people – almost everywhere. I also didn’t like not having enough time once we docked to truly explore any one place. Basically, you get a sampling of what the country might be like. It would have been fun to spend the week in just one place but clearly cruises are not designed for that. All in all, the best part of the cruise was spending time with my two sisters who I don’t get to see enough and of course, not having to cook, clean-up or do anything but visit.

The Brown Girls Cruising

Tags: fascinatingwomenover50, midlife journey, oops50, women's journeys, womenwriters
Posted in Books, Entertainment, Environment, Family, Fitness, Health, Journey, Love, Main, Relationships, Travel, World | 4 Comments »