Boomeresque:Definition
1. Adj.: Describing a person born between 1 Jan. 1946 and 31 Dec. 1964
2. Adj.: Description of a person, place or thing possessing Baby Boomer je ne sais quoi
3. See also, Boomer, Esq.: A Baby Boomer who is also a licensed attorney (See, e.g., About).

About Me (and Mr. Excitement)

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(Updated 2015, 2017, 2018)

I was born about mid-way between 1946 and 1964, the birth years said to define Baby Boomerdom.

I’m and almost recovered Philadelphia attorney. After 25 years in the crash and burn lane of full time lawyering, I resigned as a shareholder at my small law firm and gave up ten hour work days for a part-time, somewhat flexible work-load, writing appellate briefs. With legal research and brief filing done on-line, I could work — wherever and whenever.

I found out that too much of my identity was invested in my legal career for me to quit lawyering cold turkey. I still can’t quite get that legal monkey off my back, but being a travel blogger is infinitely more fun. (Update: 9/13/15 For the first time, I seriously considered not renewing my law license—but the legal monkey is hanging on for dear life apparently.) (Update: 2018 My husband, Mr. Excitement, is wondering why I persist in paying my law licence renewal fee and doing the required 12 hours of continuing legal education every year.)

huayana Picchu at Machu Picchu

Mr. Excitement has been my favorite travel companion for a long time. At Machu Picchu on our honeymoon in 1982.

Part of my impetus for stepping back from full time lawyering was to be able to devote myself more fully to non-legal (as opposed to illegal) writing and to be available as a “trailing spouse” to accompany my physician-scientist husband (a/k/a Mr. Excitement) on his travels.  (The perk of academic medicine (if you like to travel) is that medical researchers are encouraged to share their work and to collaborate globally).  I suspect many Baby Boomers understand how the extra “free” time has also been beneficial for managing issues for aged parents.

I inherited more than a bit of wanderlust from my father, a Philadelphia public school art teacher. He took us to Mexico to live for a year when I was nine in 1963, and we did another year-long stint abroad when I was fifteen, this time in Devizes, Wiltshire, England where he was an exchange teacher.  After the year in England, we camped through France, Italy and Spain for seven weeks, following him through some of the best art museums in the world.

In 1974, not surprisingly, my parents heartily endorsed my decision to spend a semester living with a Colombian family in Bogota, Colombia, while attending the University of the Andes. (I was a double major in history and Spanish at Williams College, but I realized even an excellent Spanish academic curriculum in northwestern Massachusetts was not going to help me reach my desired level of Spanish fluency in rural Massachusetts.)

Elephant Nature Park, Thailand

At the Elephant Nature Park in Thailand in 2014.

I graduated from college in 1975 at the age of 21.  In a somewhat Boomeresque pattern, I spent the next decade getting married (twice), earning a law degree, launching my legal career, and giving birth to our older son.  Three and a half years and a house purchase later, we welcomed our younger son (who has apparently inherited the wanderlust gene big time. He blogs about it at The World or Bust.) We spent our 30’s, 40’s and early 50’s, shepherding our boys through life, including college, while maintaining two active professional careers–i.e. we were kinda busy.

We are now empty nesters—-except for Dino, the cock-a-poo our younger son convinced me to rescue when he was a senior in high school.  With both our sons through college and living independently, I found the joys of home ownership to be wearing thin, and convinced my husband that we should sell our house  in the suburbs and move to an apartment in Center City Philadelphia.  Fortunately, we all (including the dog) are happy with our new living situation.

In a case of the tree growing next to the apple, it was our younger son who nudged me into travel blogging: “Mom, you like to travel and you like to write.”

Travel blogging has introduced me to other like-minded writers. Through those connections, I am the travel editor at Midlife Boulevard.

czt_logozentangle logoOne of my latest passions is Zentangle® which you can read about here. I even became a Certified Zentangle Teacher (CZT)—certificate suitable for framing and all.

A word about Mr. ExcitementIn my blog posts, you will oftentimes find my husband, Steve, referred to as “Mr. Excitement” (or sometimes, “Dr. Excitement”). This is because he and I are often referred to as “Mr. and Mrs. Excitement” by our friends and loved ones. This is a term of endearment we like to think and is meant to be ironic because, according to them, we are not all that exciting in real life. They are, of course, wrong.

And that, in a nutshell, is my life—-so far…….

So, why am I blogging?

  1. I like to write.  Words are my paint.
  2. When I semi-retired in 2005, there were actually decent opportunities for non-journalists/non-pundits to be paid for freelance writing.  I had three commentaries printed in The Philadelphia Inquirer and an essay printed in an anthology.  However, the handwriting is on the wall (as it were).  I won’t bore you with the well known saga of the struggles of print media in the digital world.
  3. I’m not terrified of computers and new technology—well, maybe a little bit.
  4. Our son’s insistence (right as it turned out) that I should meld my writing chops with my wandering ways.

So, I hope you’ll “subscribe” to Boomeresque by e-mail or RSS. Or, “like” Boomeresque on Facebook and follow me on Twitter and you will be notified when there is a new blog post and I try to be witty and helpful between blog posts on social media. If you’re a visual person, Boomeresque is on Pinterest and Instagram. Please share your comments, opinions and stories.

If you have a question or would like to collaborate with Boomeresque to promote your brand or product, please let me know.

{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }

Afrah March 27, 2015 at 12:01 pm

I like your style of writing, kind of personal and make a person want to read more. I disagree with your friends, I think you and Steve are very interesting people, I enjoyed have conversations with both of you the most.

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Barbara May 14, 2015 at 5:12 pm

Hi Suzanne! So excited to read some of your blog today. I was born smack-dab in between the boomer years as well. Unlike you, I went for a less traditional role and had a thriving freelance graphic design business – at least for a while. I was down-sized and outsourced and now, since travel is my true obsession, I’m navigating the waters of travel blogging. Wish me luck!

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Kara Franker August 20, 2015 at 9:18 am

I just realized that I know your son, Jeremy! It sure is a small world.

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Suzanne Fluhr August 20, 2015 at 11:07 am

Yep. It’s teeny.

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Penny Tannenbaum November 22, 2016 at 8:57 pm

Interesting. Not sure we knew each other at Girls High. Just read you Gift Blog. Interesting, I am following your path, although at older age. Retiring in February and off to Australia, where my husband will be visiting Professor of Veterinary Surgery. Adventure as I charge into retirement. I too, travel a lot, but on short 2-3 vacations, but now, we are getting 1 way ticket, as he will likely do a stint at Vet school in New Zealand, we will visit my 1st cousin from Cheltenham in Dubai , and travel through Europe to check in on all the Olympic sailors from numerous countries we housed in Miami over the years.

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Suzanne Fluhr November 22, 2016 at 9:06 pm

Thanks for checking out Boomeresque. I think you’ll enjoy being a trailing spouse. It’s the best of both worlds. You get to travel together, but you also have some time when your loved one is working or attending a conference to explore on your own. That’s when I usually go somewhere that I think Mr. Excitement wouldn’t be excited to visit.

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David Bishop September 13, 2017 at 4:49 pm

Weren’t you offering Zentangle classes in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park a few years ago? That seems to be my recollection. I worked as a journalist on the Big Island for 30 years before retiring, divorcing and starting my traveling life a little more than a year ago. It could have been another Zentangle person but I don’t think so, not with you mentioning you were in Hawaii and all. We even may have had a brief conversation. Anyway, I’m in Colombia now heading for Peru and Bolivia, thoroughly enjoying life. I post some travel tales on Facebook but I’m now thinking about a blog that features solo adventure travelers 60 and older. I think there are quite a few but we get short shrift on the internet. The sites for senior travelers think all we want are group tours, sightseeing, safety and certainty, which is not my style. I’m glad I found your site. Best wishes to you and “Mr. Excitement.” May your journeys always lead you to a better place in your heart.

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David Bishop September 13, 2017 at 4:55 pm

Forgot to add that I was born and raised on the Delaware River in South Jersey and was graduated from Temple U. Worked several years guiding tours at Independence National Historical Park. Love the city and used to know it fairly well.

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grasya May 28, 2018 at 9:14 am

interesting life indeed… ^_^

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Charles Waters June 7, 2020 at 6:47 am

I’m a property investor using lockdown to return to what I love – writing. Currently doing a course on content writing and an assignment on senior travel.

One of the go-to places to research is your blog.

Nearly fell off my chair when I saw where you lived for a year in the 1960’s.

Its a small world!

Charles.

(from Devizes,Wiltshire,England)

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