I walked further than before this morning, but in...

less time.  It took me 25 minutes to walk more than it took 30 minutes just three days ago.  Maybe it had something to do with it being earlier, cooler, and I started out faster for a good reason.

The ownership/management of this place moved the smoker's area out back long ago.  I don't go out back because I try to avoid second-hand cigarette smoke at all costs.  But this morning, one of the graveyard shift employees was out front, blocking my way out the door while she snuck a cigarette.  There are at least three "no-smoking" signs out there, but I guess there must be some job-related reason for her to be doing that out-front rather than in the back.  It couldn't possibly be that she's too lazy to walk a little further to the designated smoking area.  Oh wait, I know.  She can't monitor the ringing phones or the call-alarms of the residents from the back.  There is another person working, why can't they monitor for the 5 or 10 minutes she needs to get her cigarette on?

As I walked, this time I was running on the treadmill at the gym I used to go to, in my mind.  I can't believe it has been more than 10 years now since I used to run 3 miles four or five mornings a week on the treadmill before going into the office.  How I wish I'd never been hurt and forced to stop.  How I wish I hadn't let me injury stop me, and had done the work to rehab properly so I could have fun again.

The other thing on my mind as I walked this morning was, believe it or not, dating.  I saw a young couple out walking, holding hands and clearly in love.  It sent me back for some reason to the days when I was using the personal ads and singles groups to try to meet Miss Right, as opposed to Miss Right-at-the-moment.  There were a lot of the latter, as opposed to the former in those days.  It started me thinking once again about "the initials".

The initials are much more important when using the ads in the Jewish Journal, or the website J-Date, but they are important in any environment where you're trying to meet a single person to date and possibly form a relationship.  Now on J-Date, and in the aforementioned Journal, the lodestone initials for women are MD or JD after your name.  The winning lottery ticket is having both MD and JD following your name.  Last time I was in the ER my doctor had both a MD and a JD (they were on his nametag), and I told him he'd be a big hit in the personal ads with both of those, eliciting a laugh from him.  PhD is less desirable, because in general, PhDs don't have the earning power of MDs or JDs.  MBA is okay, but if you lose the M and have just a BA, that's considered BS.  CFP or CHFC after MBA is fine, but only average if they follow BA (they're financial expert designations, for those unwilling to search the web for an acronym list).  AA is not okay, and if the best you can do is HSG (High School Graduate), you should plan for lonely nights, cold showers and no children visiting you when you settle into the old folks home.

I made these comments to a woman I dated and remained friends with, and she told me I was full of it.  So I decided to conduct an unscientific experiment on J-Date.  I posted three new profiles.  One was me, but without a photo, and slightly new information.  I mentioned having a good job (I did), being divorced, childless, slightly heavy but in excellent shape (I was running 3 miles daily and riding 100 miles a week on the bicycle after all), living near the beach and detailed my interests.  The next profile was the same information, rewritten so as not to be obvious, but mentioned owning a house and having a MBA.  The third profile was also the same information, in a third version, mentioned owning my own home and a vacation home in Vail, and having that lodestone MD after my name.

The first profile got 3 responses in 30 days.  The second got 10.  The third got 25.  Same age, same height and weight, same basic info, but #2 was more financially secure and educated than #1 and #3 was more of both than than both.  Now that's not scientific proof of my theory, but it showed me, the initials matter.

Tomorrow would normally be a day of rest, but I used that chip up yesterday, so I'll be walking tomorrow.