I don't see Breast Cancer.

This past weekend I had the pleasure of reuniting with one of my dearest gal-pals from High School. We were on the same weapon-wielding squad, sort of speak, in our senior year, and we had a great time, back then, so it was fun to catch up and embrace our friendship anew. I will not say how long it had been since we had graduated. I fear my body would finally succumb to gravity and hasten itself back to dust should I even utter my age to myself or to the public. Barbara was on the Banner & Saber team and I was on the Riffle twirling team at Glendora High school in Southern California. She carried the letters in front of the marching band and twirled actual (blunted) sabers when the band performed at competitions and halftime shows at football games. I was one of the six maniacs who tossed heavy mock-rifles around and the Riffles and Sabers were always intermingling our acts. At our high school the Saber girls had to be a certain height and, that year especially, they were all athletic and gorgeous. And we were the very first Riffle squad and most of us were on different athletic teams so we were treated like cheerleaders with guns. Not to mention: most of the band members were award-winning & talented musicians, as well as lunch-time parking-lot stoners, so all of us were not unpopular. We met at the famous Drake Hotel for high tea and Barbara, who had taken the trip from Glendora to Chicago with her sister, caught me up on her family and children and her husband’s business etc. My partner, David, and me, talked about our dogs and jobs and my book which was just published. Our time together reaffirmed our like and love for each other and I know we will be in touch and see each other again soon. When David and I got home, David mentioned how I had “side swept” the conversation when it was brought up that Barbara had just been treated for breast cancer. I told him that I would have talked about it if I felt that it was something she wanted to talk about, or if it interested me while I was enjoying her company, fancy scones and Chai tea. Now, don’t judge too fast here: You see, as I explained to David, I hear the words breast cancer almost every day in my line work. As a hairdresser, most of my women clients have come into contact with the subject, directly or indirectly in some form or fashion. I’m not shy to the subject but I think I know when someone wants to talk about it or not. In fact, Barbara, who was sporting a very cute short do at Tea asked if I liked it (loved!), and that’s when she told me she had just been able to grow some hair back after the loss of it due to radiation and chemo treatments. Frankly, I went straight to the gushing about her hair because it had only dawned on me, just then, that she always had had long hair in high school. What had she been waiting for to go short? Cancer? I said that too and she laughed and then the dis-ease subject did never surface again. In retrospect, I can only hope that Barbara knows that I am aware of what she has gone through. While I may not have had cancer I know all the steps she had to go through to be healthy and to be able to visit Chicago and I'm aware of the emotional toll her health journey has taken on her and her family.

Feeling like I do not need to actually talk about the elephant in the room stems form being a haidresser. It's my job to see the person one is on the "inside." Not the outside nor what is litterally reflecting back to me in the mirror. I don't see hair, daily drama and certainly not cancer; and most people are not of the words they choose. I look and listen and then my job is to reflect back to my client the real person inside -- and I try to make the hair represent that too. At the Drake, I was talking to and enjoying my friend who had been living a great life and who, just recently, had battled cancer. She is the sum of her whole life and she is delightful.

If you ask me my age, I hope that you see the person on the inside, not the number. I can tell you that I’m a lucky guy who has never had a life threatening illness but I can support you if you do. I’m a great listener to whatever you are going through because I know, whether you make it through this lifetime to a ripe age, or get stopped in your tracks, I know you are the always-perfect timeless spirit-person on the inside and everyone is beautiful.

Now, If you'll excuse me, I’m going to call my friend, Barbara, right now, to ask her how she is doing. I won't be walking this year but I always give to my friends and clients who ask me. The Avon Walk for Breast Cancer is such a great event. "IN IT TO END IT" June 4th and 5th in Chicago http://www.avonwalk.org/chicago/ Go to the website for your city.

Event for Silver LEED certified Apartment Building, The Morgan at Loyola Station

Did you know that apartment buildings are more energy efficient than single family homes? By their very nature, cities can drain less energy on the energy grid than spread out suburbs. Think about it: shared wall-space divides, core heating & air, and four or less window walls exposed to the elements. But what if an apartment building goes for the SILVER! and decides to get a Silver LEED certification? You have a Green building that is actually %60 more efficient than a standard high-rise or apartment building. For those of you who read my last blog, it was all about what a LEED building is and how much goes into getting a certification.
Chicago’s latest Silver LEED building is none other than the luxury apartment building: The Morgan at Loyola Station.
Please join them for a celebration and check out their beautiful eco-friendly apartments March 9th.
Right off the Loyola Station Redline, this event “tweetup!” will host you with delicious bites from Steve's Deli and Burrito Beach, cocktails, and you can mingle with local businesses, such as, I-GO Car Sharing, Tricoci University, Red Mango, PopChips, Washme-Envigreen and Lynfred Winery. They will have fun giveaways for attendees.
RSVP at http://tweetvite.com/event/TheMorgan
And contact the Retail and Residential Leasing office at The Morgan at Loyola Station if you are interested in their elite apartment or retail space along with CVS & Five Guys Burgers & Fries. 773-465-9400

LEED

The LEED green building certification program encourages and accelerates global adoption of sustainable green building and development practices through a suite of rating systems that recognize projects that implement strategies for better environmental and health performance.
Here is what they look at:
Sustainable SitesChoosing a building's site and managing that site during construction are important considerations for a project’s sustainability. The Sustainable Sites category discourages development on previously undeveloped land; minimizes a building's impact on ecosystems and waterways; encourages regionally appropriate landscaping; rewards smart transportation choices; controls stormwater runoff; and reduces erosion, light pollution, heat island effect and construction-related pollution.
Water Efficiency
Buildings are major users of our potable water supply. The goal of the Water Efficiency credit category is to encourage smarter use of water, inside and out. Water reduction is typically achieved through more efficient appliances, fixtures and fittings inside and water-wise landscaping outside.
Energy & Atmosphere
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, buildings use 39% of the energy and 74% of the electricity produced each year in the United States. The Energy & Atmosphere category encourages a wide variety of energy strategies: commissioning; energy use monitoring; efficient design and construction; efficient appliances, systems and lighting; the use of renewable and clean sources of energy, generated on-site or off-site; and other innovative strategies.
Materials & Resources
During both the construction and operations phases, buildings generate a lot of waste and use a lot of materials and resources. This credit category encourages the selection of sustainably grown, harvested, produced and transported products and materials. It promotes the reduction of waste as well as reuse and recycling, and it takes into account the reduction of waste at a product’s source.
Indoor Environmental Quality
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that Americans spend about 90% of their day indoors, where the air quality can be significantly worse than outside. The Indoor Environmental Quality credit category promotes strategies that can improve indoor air as well as providing access to natural daylight and views and improving acoustics.
Locations & Linkages
The LEED for Homes rating system recognizes that much of a home's impact on the environment comes from where it is located and how it fits into its community. The Locations & Linkages credits encourage homes being built away from environmentally sensitive places and instead being built in infill, previously developed and other preferable sites. It rewards homes that are built near already-existing infrastructure, community resources and transit, and it encourages access to open space for walking, physical activity and time spent outdoors.
Awareness & Education
The LEED for Homes rating system acknowledges that a green home is only truly green if the people who live in it use the green features to maximum effect. The Awareness & Education credits encourage home builders and real estate professionals to provide homeowners, tenants and building managers with the education and tools they need to understand what makes their home green and how to make the most of those features.
Innovation in Design
The Innovation in Design credit category provides bonus points for projects that use new and innovative technologies and strategies to improve a building’s performance well beyond what is required by other LEED credits or in green building considerations that are not specifically addressed elsewhere in LEED. This credit category also rewards projects for including a LEED Accredited Professional on the team to ensure a holistic, integrated approach to the design and construction phase.
Regional Priority
USGBC’s regional councils, chapters and affiliates have identified the environmental concerns that are locally most important for every region of the country, and six LEED credits that address those local priorities were selected for each region. A project that earns a regional priority credit will earn one bonus point in addition to any points awarded for that credit. Up to four extra points can be earned in this way. See the Regional Priority

I did not write any of the above. I wanted this posted on my Blog for reference. Go to
http://www.usgbc.org/ for more information.

And Congratulations to Hotel Felix and The Morgan at Loyala Station a Hotel and a fabulous new dwelling apartments which were designed for Silver LEED and achievements.

Giving some Love to the Social Media Writers.

“A hairdresser who is a writer? That’s crazy!” That’s one of the tag lines I’ve seen written about me and I’ve even used the tag in my own pitch letters to media platforms to net additional comments and publicity for my writing. Additionally, I could use this tag line to add sparkle to articles I might write about many of my friends. All I’d have to do is take out the word, hairdresser, and replace it with “mommy,” or “tea peddler,” “refrigeration specialist,” “real estate agent,” or “environmentalist.”
We’ve all become writers. I believe it’s required of anyone who wants to succeed in business, whether you are an entrepreneur, a stay at home mom who wants to create a non-traditional revenue stream, or an employee who might be in a position to interact with customers via PR or social media.
I’m not going to tell anyone how to write or what to write. Because writing, for me, is mostly an artistic expression, when I have the time. The artistic writing is what I sell and what I would like to get attention for. It’s the “other” writing I want to talk about. It’s the writing and words we put together to get attention to sell our books, candles or TV shows and to “snare” new customers. We have all become writers; we write blogs, comment on each other’s websites and we tweet 140 characters--multiple times a day. Most of us use email and snail-mail to send our own press releases. I’m the only one who can keep up my personal informative & pithy Facebook updates. In this Information Age it’s key to keep the “content” going out “there” to keep our business in the minds of those people whom we are trying to reach and interact with.
This is a love letter to you, my fellow writers. Many times I get tired of blogging or writing press releases. I wasn’t born with a fondness for typing informational fliers to fellow staff members about book-signings or advice on how to be green. I do love to tweet. But it’s hard to keep it all up, isn’t it? Writing may or may not be a talent we possess. It may also not be our passion. Some of my friends are women with families & have a passion for children or tea. Or, like my friend, Mitch, has his own refrigeration repair business and loves specialty beers. And Lynne & Dr. Sarah have inspired passion for environmental issues. All of these people have businesses which encompass their passions and they also have blogs or books, and use Twitter and Facebook, to name a few, to make sure their business or passions makes them a good living. My hats off to all of us--just know that you are not alone.
I wish we could all hang out more, my writer friends and me. I think then that I wouldn’t feel so tired and alone in the writing that I do. For writing is a very lonely thing. We have to shutter out our friends and families, and even our goals and passions to do it. I want to hang out with all of you, have a beer, and tell you that I’m with you. Whenever you write, I’m doing the same thing. I feel glad to do it but it’s tiring and it’s not always my passion and I know I have to do it. I’m just like you and I know we all feel like we are juggling a million plates in the air to make sure our business, our voice, our books!, and all of our writings are heard, seen, and read. A hairdresser who is a writer? Yes. And sometimes I just want to be a hairdresser and sometimes I want to write books and write blogs. And sometimes I just want to know that someone else is out there doing the same thing as I am and that it makes you feel crazy too.
Please comment here if you like. Or you can tweet me up or even buy my book at www.mafiahairdresser.com
My first promo books will be signed and delivered by mid March! Whoo-hoo!
Love ya,
j-d

Drinks: Vegas Bombs & Lemoncello Martini

Vegas Bombs
Everyone in Chicago seemed to know what this shot drink was except for me. I had them at McGee's the very first time and then served them at New Years. Warning: What happens after you drink a Vegas Bomb may not remembered. "What happens in Vegas..." Get it? And I guess it's not so smart to mix Red Bull with Vodka. We drank them anyway and most of us stayed up til 3 in the morning playing charades. We forgot to open the expensive champagne everyone had brought. We forgot to toast to New Years. And two guys completely forgot that they invited us all over for brunch, Jan 1st. I'm just saying. In fact, don't drink Vegas Bombs--ever. They must be a health risk. But here's the recipe anyway.

1 highball glass full of Red Bull (about 1/2 a large can)
1 shot glass filled 1/2 Peach Schnapps & 1/2 Jack Daniel's Whiskey

Drop the shot glass in the Red Bull and drink up! Even people who don't like Red Bull like this stimulating mind-erasing drink.


Lemoncello Martini
I got this one off the Internet and I liked it and served it at an Italian themed night at a friend's house.

3 fluid ounces vodka
1 fluid ounce limoncello
1 teaspoon simple *syrup (I use half of what recipe calls for simple syrup. Too sweet for me otherwise.)

lemon twist
Directions:
Prep Time: 5 mins
Total Time: 15 mins
1 Fill a shaker with ice.
2 Add vodka, limoncello and simple *syrup.
3 Shake well and strain into oversized martini glasses.
4 Garnish each with a lemon twist.
5 Note: Simple *syrup is made by combining 2 parts granulated sugar with 1 part water. 6 Simmer, stirring, over low heat until sugar is dissolved.

Jon-David is the Mafia Hairdresser on JenChicago.com

Snowmeggedon Super Bowl Sunday.

Winter. Snowmeggedon. Super Bowl Sunday. For me, these are a few of the events that make me stop my doings and disrupt the planned-out timeline to my goals. I think these events actually become the true markers in my memory so I can always recall what I was doing when these events occurred.
I’ll always remember snOMG (that’s “Snow: Oh My God”) as the day ALL of my clients cancelled a day in advance. It will be one of the favorite days of my life where me and my partner watched 5 episodes of Dexter, played with our three dogs, and we spent hours doing our separate “homework” while watching the blizzard begin to hit us on TV which intensified our excitement while actually seeing it and hearing it pummel our high-rise and wreack havoc on the streets below.
The next morning I woke up to an incredible sight. There were 10 foot snow drifts against buildings and snow so high that only tops of street signs and half of bus stops were visible. There were no people that I could see and there was barely any indication that anyone had been up that morning or had ventured outside because only our building’s sidewalk had been shoveled and there were not a lot of footprints or dog prints in the 20 inches of snow. Moving cars were non-existent because the snow plows could not keep up with the pure white stuff that whipped down from the sky and blanketed the cars that were parked on the curbs. The few cars that were in the middle of the street were abandoned and covered by snow as well. You’d think the dogs would have loved running wild in the middle of our usually busy intersection without leashes, but our morning walk/play time was a little exhausting for them because the shallowest snow was up to their necks.
As the dogs and I came in from our first foray into our winter wonderland, we passed Lisa, and Tom, my next door neighbors (on either side) on our floor. Lisa looked exhausted and was telling Tom that she didn’t get home till 3.a.m. that morning.
In my head, I was thinking, jon-david, you do not have anymore time to waste! You have a book to publish, you don’t even know how E-books work yet, you have to call Billy Dec and Carrie Fisher to ask them to review your promo copy book, the spare room is not going to paint itself and your writer’s ass is going to be a fat-ass if you don’t get to the gym today. Seriously: I had stuff to do and I hadn’t done very much, the previous day, during the blizzard, including make money. My goal oriented mind needed to get back on track. But the little voice in my head that makes sure that I actually enjoy my life of “doing and accomplishing” made me stop & listen. This was going to be a once in a lifetime story that Lisa wanted to tell and I wanted and needed to hear it.
Lisa was one of the few Chicagoan’s that worked past 3pm on blizzard day because new boss at her new job ignored the three days of news pre-warnings that was to prepare us all for the blizzard that actually became the 3rd biggest storm that Chicago had ever seen. He was obviously a man who didn’t listen to his little happy voice in his head very much; work had to get done, regardless of the weather warnings, so he made his employees stay at work. When Lisa finally left work, she had the foresight to call the city’s transportation department to ask which route to take home to Uptown. They said for her to take Lake Shore Drive, the 40 MPH “highway” that runs along Lake Michigan: the same lake that that every news agency had been saying to stay away from because of possible 25 foot waves which would ice-up and stop all roads it would come in contact with.
Well, Lisa was one of those unlucky people who were imprisoned in thier cars for 10 hours. Luckily, she had enough gas to keep her car running and she was finally plowed out only to drive all the way home to find our parking garage closed in drift. Her car was one of the ones in the middle of the street abandoned that I saw that morning. Here’s a YouTube video. It’s says it all.
I grew up in Southern California. It’s sort like its own one-season continent held together by freeways and ambition and it is mentally sectioned off into only five areas: L.A. basin, San Diego, desert, Orange County and Magic Mountain. There is no winter there and there is never going to be a Snowpocalypse. So there is never a forced opportunity to put aside the to-do list. I actually moved to Chicago to become a writer. My life as a salon owner in Long Beach was wonderful but there was no down time. It was: wake-up, run on along the beach, go to work, teach a class, go to a cocktail party, chamber meetings… And since it was always sunny, that “surf’s up—gotta go” attitude is always with you and you are outside, in the water, on your motorcycle or playing with your dogs outside all the time! I need angst. I need to stop and reflect. And I need a little friction to write about. I know my Chicago friends complain about being over the winters here, but listen-up people: it takes stamina to be sunshine happy, go-go-go all the time. Do you think you’d ever stay indoors to watch 5 episode of Dexter, or write books and blog or watch football indoors when you could be sitting on your back porch barbequing all the time? Speaking of sports—forget about it. Everyone in So. Cal. is apathetic when it comes to sports. We lost the Rams because no one went to see them—everyone is too busy achieving and being outdoors doing activities. Very few people support sports team there because no one, except me, is really from there anyway, so nobody gets attached to them.
So, today it’s Super Bowl Sunday and I double booked myself. Do we go over to Lisa’s? Or do I go to my buddy Mike’s because I kind of told him that his Glee party was not what I really wanted to do today and I reminded him that it was Super Bowl Sunday--so he switched it to a Super Bowl party.
And it snowed again! After the dogs’ morning play-time in the new snow, I soon realized that I wasn’t going to make it to church or finish my book’s screenplay or get anything else on my to-do list done. There won't be any time to get to the gym because by the time I finish this blog, my partner and I will have to have breakfast and spend a few moments together, before I have to make my way to work to do that one client from Indiana I had to reschedule from Blizzard Day—and then it’ll be time to start drinking beer and watch the game.
I will get my book out to Chicago and the whole world will be able to read it--someday. But I’ll always remember the time I began publishing my book because I did it during the big storms and the Super Bowl of 2011. Thank you, Chicago, I love your winters and the Bears, and the Cubs and Sox and Blackhawks and all of your sports teams. You make me stop and enjoy my friends and neighbors. I love you all. Hmmm, maybe my Indiana client cancelled today? I have a phone call to make.

PS: Buy my book. Yeah: take time to read a good book and click here.