The Dauntless Princess

Today I had to clean, pack and leave my lovely suite in this gracious castle in Hagerstown, Maryland. I had to say goodbye to the wonderful people I’d worked with for over a month. I had to stop the passel of giddy highschoolers who lived next door to me and give them a large amount of unsolicited life advice about responsibility and financial success. Then I waited only on Rodger, my snail friend, to finish breakfast (he’s become fond of omlettes) before we could make the drive across Maryland to Baltimore and catch our flight to Atlanta.

Resting my elbows on the balcony railing, I looked out over the rambling castle grounds. Everything was still blooming furiously and the woods around were sprinkled with green and flashes of purple. Overlooking all this beauty, I gave my weeks in Maryland some thought.

Things I loved in Hagerstown:

1. Spring. Spring bloomed spectacularly with none of my allergens involved.

2. Rooster Moon Coffeehouse. Because every community needs a quirky, independent coffeehouse.

3. Morning and evening workouts at the YMCA. Aerobics classes are the best, and combined with a clean pool, the Y made my ideal gym. 

4. The time I spent learning. It’s not often these days I have mental space for reading or thinking, but in Hagerstown, I found I could read and think very effectively. And I took advantage of the opportunity.

5. The Historic Houses of Hagerstown. This city features some beautiful mansions. I almost wrecked every time I drove by. One does not simply not look.

And, to be balanced, things I will NOT miss in Hagerstown:

1. Crime. Although I was in an area well to the north of the city, crime still knocked on my castle door every day. My population-serving job living in a place with such a high population density of felons definitely required me to live up to being both dauntless and a princess.

2. People saying “excuse me.” In Atlanta, people move faster in closer proximity. In Hagerstown, if I stood within five feet of someone, they politely backed away and said, “excuse me.” For what, exactly? I’ll never know.

3. Traffic intersections where traffic from one direction has no stop sign but the other three do. Enough said.

I’ll take so many good memories with me from Hagerstown… Maybe the best was the day I sassed one of the castle’s cleaning ladies, so she came up behind me, pulled my hair down, then put it back up atrociously and taped my nose to my forehead while everyone else laughed.

But it’s time to put the past aside and look to the future, where a flight to Atlanta waits to take me to my dear Prince’s arms, lovely royal family, and maybe best of all, bed.

And that last prospect is something maybe even Rodger can get behind.

-The Dauntless Princess-

There have been places more quality, and there have been places more trendy. Nevertheless, Rooster Moon Coffeehouse has been my favorite hidey-hole in Hagerstown, Maryland.

I found it tucked into a low-key shopping center under a sign that said merely, “Coffee” in the same letters that would advertise “Lovely Nails and Tan” or “Huge Hibachi Buffet”.  

 

Exploring, though, I had to see for sure. And underneath the tacky exterior disguise was a warm, cheerful, comfortable coffeehouse decorated in hunter green and burnt orange with warm golden wood floors.     

 Starbucks can feel a little like a bar sometimes – in this coffeehouse, in contrast, the patrons keep to themselves and tend to be territorial. I staked my royal claim on a deep leather chair in the corner near the fireplace and whiled away some lovely hours thinking and reading. 

The coffeehouse has some surprises. For example, there’s an old safe that’s been converted to a special overflow room. With its beautiful industrial door, it has a steampunk flair that’s beautifully eye-catching. There’s some cool art (somehow matched perfectly with the rest of the decor, although I’m convinced the color scheme was decided first!) and some local pottery.  

  
 “Rooster Moon” is the perfect name: country decor with a splash of the elegant and ethereal. If I lived here full-time, it would quickly become at least a weekly habit. Rarely do I find public spaces that are comfortable and conducive to productive thinking. Rooster Moon, I’m glad I found you. 
 
-The Dauntless Princess-

It’s easy to let weeks slip by without exercising.  A much-needed holiday, a new state, a new work assignment… and then around Easter, a flu that put me on the couch for a week!  Lying there last week, I resolved that as soon as I felt better, it was going to be gym time.  Serious gym time.

I’ve been in and out of gyms since I was fifteen years old. It started in Africa.  In that country, where dust coats the house daily, common practice was to have a maid do the cleaning.  (This seems irrelevant, but stay with me).  My family gave that a try and found that we simply could not stand having someone in our house doing our chores for us.  So instead, we made a deal with ourselves: we would do all the cleaning ourselves and use the money to take out a membership at a local health club.  They had a small, well-equipped fitness room, a squash court, and an outdoor swimming pool.  We did our best to exercise every day for an hour.

It wasn’t easy.  When I started, I couldn’t run half a mile without stopping to rest.  I couldn’t do a push-up until I was fully sixteen.  I never got any better at squash.  My first step aerobics class was a nightmare of embarrassing uncoordination.  Then there was the time my friend Ruthie and I treaded water in the deep end one day for an hour, thinking it would be good exercise, forgetting that it was midday and shunning sunscreen. Without a doubt, it was the most painful sunburn I’ve ever had.

But part of being dauntless is pressing on.  Ten years later, I miss working out when I don’t get to!  I’m incredibly fortunate that my current employer pays for my gym membership while I’m on assignment.  Here in Hagerstown, I joined the YMCA.

Of course, I was impatient to get started.  But I had to overcome some obstacles first.

1. I needed a swimsuit.  Have you ever tried to buy a swimsuit for swimming laps?  It can’t fit to loose or too tight.  It can’t show through.  It has to be supportive.  It has to have great coverage but be very open in the back to allow maximum range of motion.  Oh… and it has to exist, too.  Dick’s Sporting Goods?  Nothing.  Marshalls?  Nothing.  Outlet stores?  Nike?  Reebok?  Underarmor?  Nothing.  Online?  Don’t get me started.  I spent hours online sifting through swimsuits, then hours more trying to figure out my size using a pink ribbon and supposedly true-to-scale ruler from the internet.

2. I needed to not be sick.  “It’s just allergies,” I told myself.  That was false.  A week after I started slowing down, I was still coughing up a lung and severely congested.  Being patient was a trial, but I knew exercise would just make me recover more slowly.

Last Thursday, I finally decided I was ready.  My swimsuit still hadn’t come but would soon (I checked the USPS tracking twice a day).  I put on my shorts, workout shirt and tennis shoes.  Then walked into a Body Pump class.

A Body Pump class is where everyone has a barbell with light weights.  You do reps for an hour with major muscle groups. I walked in and said to myself, great, I can do this.  “Check, check,” said a female voice over the sound system.  Looking for the voice, I saw a tiny Asian woman heading for the stage smiling at everyone.  She wasn’t too buff.  But no one in the class was overweight and that was a sure sign it would be a hard workout.  Everyone else put about thirty pounds on their bar, and I have pride, so I went with five pounds.

Group exercise is a little like a room full of people dancing together, but with less coordination and more brute strength required.  You all move together to the rhythm of the music.  You all lift and release in time with one another.  You all begin strong and finish tired.  It’s easy to join in and be a part.  It’s a great feeling.

The movements the tiny and smiling Asian lady led us through weren’t challenging.  Squat, lift, squat, lift for singles.  Then a combo.  This went on for about ten minutes.  Then… then I couldn’t really feel my legs anymore.  What?  This hadn’t happened to me in years.  I’d been tired from exercise.  But not this.  This was different.  This was my lower body just utterly turned to gelatin.  The rest of the class was doing lunges and I was standing there with a five-pound barbell across my shoulders trying to get my quads to respond.  Well, I thought grimly, walking probably won’t be an option tomorrow.  

My legs kept up this non-responsive act through the next day, but I convinced them to take me back to the same class Saturday morning.  Things started to get better as my body re-adjusted to my normal exercise levels.  This week, I’m even starting to regain muscle mass!  It’s too easy to fall into an inactive lifestyle.  But, for this adventure anyway, it looks like couch potato time is over and done.

Serious gym time, here I come.

~The Dauntless Princess~