So…what is the Monday Poll?
Well, it isn’t exactly a poll. It’s more of a constantly evolving (devolving?), somewhat random list of questions I’ve been putting out to readers every Monday morning for the past 11 (!) years. (It’s like a kickstart for your brain.) I’ve always enjoyed reading your answers in the comments, and I hope you enjoy reading mine.
1. White nail polish or black nail polish?
Contrary to my all-black errrything philosophy and my inevitable future as a Sith Lord (Star Wars moment, sorry not sorry), I gotta go with the white nails.
I love wearing opaque white nail polish, but the finish has to be absolutely devoid of shimmer, and I also have to use a super shiny gel coat.
And my nails also have to be extremely short.
2. What are you striving for today?
A bunch of things, but most importantly, whatever I do, I want to go about my business with a joyful heart. I also want to kick some mutha’ trucking butt in HIIT class tonight.
3. Have you ever shouted at a stranger?
Uh…not lately. 🙂
I’m not normally a “She shouts at strangers” person, but when I was pregnant and hormonal and bat-sh*t cray, I got really, really great at cursing. It was like I was blessed with the temporary gift of creative profanity!
I remember being six months pregnant and waddling across an intersection in front of Target when a car almost bumped into me, and I went OFF at the lady behind the wheel. I may or may not have pointed at my stomach and yelled a long string of colorful phrases.
There was also another parking lot incident at the mall over Christmas when I went off on someone who cut me and El Hub off while we were waiting in a traffic jam. I don’t remember exactly what I said, but there were some creative hand gestures involved when the lady in the other car said, “calm down.”
I’m like “What the $@&%*! did you just say to me?”
4. Coffee or wine?
Considering my last answer, you might suggest some wine in an IV drip, LOL! Chill, Karen. 🙂
I usually prefer coffee.
5. What’s one thing that dramatically improved the state of your hair?
Quitting daily blow drying before my hair turned into straw. Back when I was in my 20s, I used to straighten my naturally wavy hair every day with a blow dryer and a round brush, and it fried my hair.
When I hit my early 30s and decided to embrace my natural hair texture and got into the habit of air drying, my strands stopped looking and feeling rough and coarse. It took a while and a bunch of haircuts to trim away the damaged parts, but that made a big positive impact on my hair.
Streamers
Yesterday we were at Party City looking for decorations for Connor’s upcoming bday party, and we were going down the different aisles, and El Hub was just being a dude and looking at Halloween costumes and putting on fake mustaches — and doing everything except the task at hand, which was looking for party decorations.
The tipping point was when I asked him to go find streamers, and he said, “What are streamers? I don’t know what streamers look like,” at which point I said, “You should probably just go wait in the car…”
I mean, what are streamers?? They come in rolls, they’re round, they look like crepe paper — they’re streamers. They look like streamers!
Note to self: don’t let El Hub decorate any of Connor’s future parties…
Why do small things like streamers make a day feel so special? It’s the little things that count, you know? I hope you find a way to make your day, and this week, feel special.
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
P.S. Here are the questions to copy and paste with your answers in a comment:
1. White nail polish or black nail polish?
2. What are you striving for today?
3. Have you ever shouted at a stranger?
4. Coffee or wine?
5. What’s one thing that dramatically improved the state of your hair?
Happy President’s day!
1. White nail polish or black nail polish? My college age daughter wears white polish all of the time and it looks great. Not so much on me. On me I feel like it looks like I painted my nails with white out. So…I prefer black.
2. What are you striving for today? Doing some laundry and meal prep for the week. Trying to talk myself into doing a noon CF class. Thinking about using some of the lemons I harvested to make some lemon bread.
3. Have you ever shouted at a stranger? Yes, when some rude person was honking at me (in line at grade school car pool pick up.)
4. Coffee or wine? Coooffeeee!
5. What’s one thing that dramatically improved the state of your hair? Not washing it everyday.
Hi Kelly
I hope you’re enjoying the holiday! I would’ve never guessed you had a college-age daughter… You look so young! Does she go to school nearby? I often wonder where Connor will end up for college (even though it’s far away). I would miss her if I couldn’t see her every day!
Thanks, Karen! You are too kind. My older daughter is a sophomore at San Diego State. She loves it. Phones are great these days for keeping in touch–she texts or sends me an IG message a couple times a week or more with random questions like “how long can you keep uncooked chicken in the fridge before it goes bad?” or sends me video of her on the treadmill or skateboarding to class. Long distant parenting can be kind of fun!
1. White nail polish or black nail polish? White! I used to love the dark, vampy shades but now I’m into the lighter colors.
2. What are you striving for today? Serenity lmao but the kids get home from school in an hour so there goes that goal.
3. Have you ever shouted at a stranger? Um yes.. Usually I try to hold back but it gets really old holding the door for someone and having them neglect to say thank you or even SMILE. Like… it’s not my job to do this, I’m just a polite person. So generally when they don’t say thank you or smile I shout YOU’RE WELCOME. I don’t if my kids are around, but otherwise =\
4. Coffee or wine? Coffee FOR SURE. I love wine but I can’t survive without coffee.
5. What’s one thing that dramatically improved the state of your hair? Finding an awesome stylist that came up with a great formula for my highlights!
Hi Brooke,
El Hub and I were JUST talking about people who don’t say thank you when you hold the door open for them. It happens a LOT where I live (lots of entitled behavior). Anyway, I used to say “You’re welcome” very loudly but nobody would ever turn around, so I’ve decided that I’m going to just chase people down, and introduce myself very nicely, and say, “Hi, I’m Karen, and I’m the person who held the door open for you. I didn’t have to do it, and I was just doing it to be nice to a stranger, so I thought I’d give you a chance to have good manners and say you’re welcome.”
LMAO! That is an excellent idea!!! Guarantee those same people would tell you that YOU’RE the rude one bahahaha
People think southerners are polite because of the door-holding and thank yous. However, people show you what they *really are* when they drive, and southerners are, on the whole, extremely impolite drivers, and many are downright sociopathic.
1. White nail polish or black nail polish?
Black, definitely. Not opposed to white but I think it’s easier to get a good opaque black and I’m not sure how white would translate on me. Might be one of those that brings out the pink in my skin. That said if someone gave me a one coat white, I’d try it out for sure ?
2. What are you striving for today?
Prepping for my epic adventure to the DMV for my out of state license and registration/title hoopla. Realized this weekend my Minnesota license expires tomorrow and I am going to need a boatload of documentation to bring with me so I want to make sure I have all my bases covered since the husband will need to take some time off to be with our 2 year old. It may be a several hour ordeal. 37 weeks pregnant not my ideal state for a new DL picture though, bad call Nicole putting it off so long!
3. Have you ever shouted at a stranger? Maybe as a teenager? I can go years without shouting, just isn’t in my nature. Only since having a second child do I occasionally yell (at them). Because ?
4. Coffee or wine?
Coffee, never acquired a taste for wine.
5. What’s one thing that dramatically improved the state of your hair?
It’s never really been in a bad state because I’m too lazy to do anything that really damages it. ?
Hi Nicole,
Good luck at the DMV! I did a post a while back when I had to renew my pic… It’s better to wear more makeup than less with those cameras! I hope everything goes smoothly!
1. White nail polish or black nail polish? This is the unanswerable question! They’re my two favorite nail colors. But probably black, I like a dark nail.
2. What are you striving for today? Nothing! My plan is to do nothing! Lol! It’s a holiday so the kids are home from school. I just want to watch cheesy Hallmark movies while my 15 year old daughter complains bitterly about the kissing scenes and my 12 year old daughter steals our pug for cuddles. Heaven.
3. Have you ever shouted at a stranger? Maaaaaaaybe! Ha ha! After Prop 8 passed in CA 9 years ago, I participated in a little anti hate protest in my town. In my very conservative small Central CA town. My daughters were 3 and 6, and we got called all sorts of things that day, and we yelled back. I’m proud of that, the girls are still yelling, I think that’s important.
4. Coffee or wine? Coffee. All. Day. Long.
5. What’s one thing that dramatically improved the state of your hair? Not washing it every day, and ramping up the conditioning.
1. White nail polish or black nail polish? Black, most definitely. Have not found a white polish that doesn’t look like typewriter correction fluid on my nails. That and I have such pale skin, white just doesn’t work.
2. What are you striving for today? I already had a good workout this morning, so that’s crossed off my list. Getting some laundry done before we go see “Black Panther” this evening. I know, I have lofty goals, don’t I?
3. Have you ever shouted at a stranger? All the time. Yesterday we were in The City and Dear Husband was driving and we had the green light and this lady just steps out and starts crossing the street in front of all the cars on 5th St. Dear Husband tried to swerve then slammed on the brakes. I rolled down the window, gave her a few finger suggestions and yelled, “What the fork is wrong with you, you crazy, forking -itch!” I swear like a truck driver. Usually Dear Husband hates it, but he didn’t say anything to me yesterday.
4. Coffee or wine? Both. Coffee in the a.m., wine and cocktails in the p.m.
5. What’s one thing that dramatically improved the state of your hair? Wish I could figure it out, because my post-menopausal hair is getting thinner, sparser and more brittle. It helps when I use the Christophe Robin Creme Levant. But if I use it too often it starts to weigh down my hair and besides that it’s super expensive.
I would not have told Dear Husband to go to the car if he didn’t know what streamers were. I’d educate him and get him more involved. If I kept sending him to the car every time I got frustrated with him, I’d end up doing every darn thing myself and I just don’t want to do everything myself. I want help and lots of it. I’m a delegator.
So you have to tell me what Chanel lip colors you have in the gif (is that a gif?) at the top of this post. And did you do any fancy, filter/camera work on them. Because I like those colors and want them on my lips.
white
cleaning out son’s Xbox games
shouted at so they can hear No, in the car yes and loud
do I have to pick? but recently with new diet regime wine has been forgotten
Dyson dryer
Hi Karen ,
1. Definetly black nails but I usually do French w dip powder !
#lifesaver
2. Striving to do at least 20 minutes on stationary bike ?
3. Oh yeah ! Driving on the highway I make up shyt !
4. Coffee ☕️ Wine exacerbates my asthma.
5. Nip cut every 2 months , shampoo w Pura D’ora shampoo ; color w Anderson color every 8 weeks ( both online purchases !
Have a great Presidents Day !
1. White nail polish or black nail polish?
Black nail polish. Just looks better against my pale hands.
2. What are you striving for today?
An early bed time. But given the time I write this, I will probably fail.
3. Have you ever shouted at a stranger?
Yes. But only when it comes to people touching my kids. Personally i laugh at people much more often.
4. Coffee or wine?
Neither. Only tea.
5. What’s one thing that dramatically improved the state of your hair?
Olaplex. I can’t let go of the blonde I had when I was a kid, and using Olaplex has really helped with the damage the bleach does.
White nail polish or black nail polish? White
2. What are you striving for today? peace of mind
3. Have you ever shouted at a stranger? only in the car with the windows rolled up!
4. Coffee or wine? does pumpkin spice latte in October count? then coffee
5. What’s one thing that dramatically improved the state of your hair? my hairdresser told me to quit using drugstore shampoo because it has too much wax in it. I started using better quality shampoo and it seems to help. Also I quit using volumizing shampoo, which dries my hair OUT!
1. White nail polish or black nail polish? White. I love a good French manicure. Or plain off-white.
2. What are you striving for today? To hit some landmarks with work.
3. Have you ever shouted at a stranger? Hmm. Yes! Fortunately, not often. Looking back, though, I was pretty feisty in my early 20’s, especially with men on the street who felt too…entitled.
4. Coffee or wine? Decaf coffee with 3 teaspoons of honey and tons of cream.
5. What’s one thing that dramatically improved the state of your hair? Finding lovely stylists who know how to make a look work with my natural texture, so I don’t have to load up with products or use a blowdryer. Also, not washing it much. I know that was a fad a few years ago… but you still have to scrub it with hot water every other day or so, which never seemed to catch on. And for people who use hair products, you do still kind of have to wash it. But it works for me!
1. White nail polish or black nail polish? White if I had to pick. But I would rather have a beige pink!
2. What are you striving for today? To get through my neuro visit (check!) and get home and relax.
3. Have you ever shouted at a stranger? Oh yeah. Not frequently, but if someone does something unsafe or is just obnoxious, it could happen.
4. Coffee or wine? Both! Coffee in the morning with my skin care.
5. What’s one thing that dramatically improved the state of your hair? Not coloring it and letting by my now white hair grow out. I still play with toner but no peroxide or ammonia.
1. White nail polish or black nail polish?
I’m jazzed for either!
2. What are you striving for today?
To make it through the day. I’ve had an ER allergy visit. I’m pretty jacked up still and had to work, so trying to get through the day before I keel over.
3. Have you ever shouted at a stranger?
Many times. Smack your kid in the face in public, you gonna get called out and cops called. Bitch me out for not getting out of a parking spot quick enough for your liking… getting shouted at. Try to steal my bag, gettin’ shouted at.
4. Coffee or wine?
If I had to lose one forever, I’d ditch coffee.
5. What’s one thing that dramatically improved the state of your hair?
Not using terry towels anymore on it, the right products, and never brushing when wet.
1. White nail polish or black nail polish?
black if I had to choose, but I typically go for bright or dark colors
2. What are you striving for today?
a new job!
3. Have you ever shouted at a stranger?
no, I’m too non-confrontational to do that
4. Coffee or wine?
BOTH–but if I had to choose one, I could live without wine before I could live without coffee.
5. What’s one thing that dramatically improved the state of your hair?
I’m still looking for my holy grail product to give my fine, lifeless hair more body!!!!
1. White nail polish or black nail polish?
These days? Polish on me is a rarity, but I usually did a very creamy pure white. Black just looks so odd on my pale skin. I look like a goth. >.> Better just go white and stay within the pale them. HA HA HA.
2. What are you striving for today?
Getting some of my editing done before ice dancing. Please, ShibSibs, please medal. (We have done terribly in figure skating. Didn’t make the top ten in pairs, 7th in men’s figure skating and a bronze in team skate. Siiiiiiiiiiiiigh.)
3. Have you ever shouted at a stranger?
Yes, just not at the barn. At the barn, I have strongly lectured a parent (yes PARENT) at one of our barn’s shows for giving her child directions when that wasn’t allowed. Your child is supposed to show how he/she can keep her heels down and head up without being told. If you yell at your child to do that, yes, you are going to anger me because it is not fair to other competitors that you are cheating and I am going to stalk over to you – in my riding habit – and tell you (very sternly) that what you are doing is against the rules, unfair and that your child will be corrected at the end by the judges, so keep your piehole shut and clap when told to (as politely as I can muster.)
4. Coffee or wine?
I don’t process wine well and I hate coffee, but I’ll take a soda, chocolate milk, lemonade (without the icky pulp), water, kool-aid, fat-free milk…just no coffee. OR TEA.
5. What’s one thing that dramatically improved the state of your hair?
Getting a stylist that really listens to me. If you have a stylist at a cheap salon that listens to you and cuts your hair well, that’s great! Keep going there! I have baby fine, thin hair that is affected by Lupus (meaning I sometimes have large bald patches when I have a flare), so I had to find a place where the hairstylists were supportive and knew how to work with hair like mine. It truly makes a difference.
1. White nail polish or black nail polish?
White.
2. What are you striving for today?
to actually get anything done. I had a fender bender at starbucks this morning so it’s not looking great.
3. Have you ever shouted at a stranger?
sure. I can’t think of an example though
4. Coffee or wine?
Coffee, though today’s coffee makes me want wine.
5. What’s one thing that dramatically improved the state of your hair?
someone to do weekly blowouts!
I went into a Party City for the first time in eons while helping plan our company’s holiday party – I needed gold star confetti. That’s it. It. Took. Forever. To find. SO much stuff there (and I came across streamers before the confetti!).
1. White nail polish or black nail polish?
Black – Being super fair-skinned the white tends to look…odd. Washed out? I don’t know. But I dig dark colors for sure.
2. What are you striving for today?
(Since this is later today) I was striving to get grocery shopping and meal prep done. I did! I have dinners for the week, taco bowls for lunches, and I also managed to knit a good chunk of a sweater…while watching The Simpsons and then the 4th Harry Potter movie.
3. Have you ever shouted at a stranger?
…All the time, while I’m driving. Or when I’m crossing the street and drivers don’t stop at stop signs.
4. Coffee or wine?
COFFEE. ‘Nuff said.
5. What’s one thing that dramatically improved the state of your hair?
Getting it cut on Saturday! It’d been about 5 months…we took off about 2 inches from my waist-length hair and it’s soooo much better. The ends were really awful and I can’t pinpoint why – I’m a wash-n-wear person and heat style maybe twice a month. I blame winter, honestly.
Hi Christine,
OK, Party City is NUTS in so many ways. You’re right; every aisle is stuffed from floor to ceiling and so not everything’s listed on aisle markers, so you really have no idea what the heck you’ll find in any given part of the store. GAH! Also, have you ever listened to the soundtrack in that store? It’s cray! They play popular songs sung by artists other than the original, and the singing is always a teensy bit off key. LMAO!
Where did you find the confetti by the way? I was looking for some but gave up!
I think it was actually near the streamers? Or maybe the balloons. I think it was near the number themes (??) and certainly not near the color themes. All I know is it was one of the sections furthest from the door! I wanted to order the confetti from Amazon but it was so much more cost effective to buy it at Party City.
1. Probably black. I have bottles of both, but haven’t gotten around to using them. White would probably pick up ink stains (from work).
2. Get some rest, and some shopping done.
3. Only from behind *closed* car windows. If you drive even 2 miles in TX traffic, someone will do something to make you want to yell at them, like cut you off, lunge across the street in front of you when there’s not enough room for them to do it safely, tailgate, lane-hop, you name it. With guns in probably more than half the cars on the road, I don’t yell with the windows down!
4. Neither. I don’t really like hot drinks, except hot chocolate on a cold day, and I don’t want to drink wine due to the fact there are alcoholics in my family tree, and if I became too depressed due to my cancer treatment, I’d probably become an alcoholic.
Hi CL,
I’ve had friends who underwent cancer treatment and I know it’s tough. Hang in there. If you ever need a virtual hug I’m here for you if you want one.
I left off 5. The one thing that helped when I started coloring my hair was using Biosilk Silk Therapy. I’d put a small amount on my hair just after washing it, comb it through, then let it air dry. I’ve only used it once in the last year due to chemotherapy. My hair is now almost 4″ long, so I’ll be coloring it and using the Biosilk again, until something better comes along.
1. White nail polish or black nail polish?
Definitely black. With a nice sparkly top coat it doesn’t look “goth”, just fancy.
2. What are you striving for today?
Peace of mind, I’ve been too anxious lately.
3. Have you ever shouted at a stranger?
Last time I remember doing it I was in my early 20s and a guy groped my butt while walking past me in the street. Sigh.
4. Coffee or wine?
Definitely wine!
5. What’s one thing that dramatically improved the state of your hair?
Also, accepting my natural hair texture.
Hope you have a great week Karen! I’m taking my husband to a spin class tonight, it’s going to be his first time but I’m a lot more excited about it than he is…
Hi Lulle,
What did your hubby think of spin? I remember the first time I dragged El Hub with me… He was dying 10 minutes in, LOL! To his credit he was good about going back and when we belonged to a gym he’d go at least once a week with me.
He also couldn’t keep up, which in a twisted way made me feel good about myself for doing it several times a week, lol! I think he tried to push too hard in the beginning so he was exhausted pretty quickly. He might come back for one of their combo classes though (spin + circuit training).
1. White nail polish or black nail polish?
Black! I do love the look of white but it’s hard not to be streaky and it gets dirty and cracked so quick. Black is easier for me to touch up! This reminded me to paint my nails, so thanks for the question 🙂
2. What are you striving for today?
To fall asleep before 1 or 2AM. I’ve always been a terrible sleeper and I’m going through a bad spell where I’ve been laying awake until 4:30 or so every morning for the past few weeks. Not so bad on weekends but terrible when I have to leave the house by 8:30AM!
3. Have you ever shouted at a stranger?
Last summer, I was on a subway back to Penn Station late at night and a bunch of tourists were being super loud and throwing a water bottle around between them. One of them missed and it hit me and I did yell at them a bit! Not my shining moment but I was exhausted from such a long day. I know I’ve also yelled at car drivers for almost hitting me on the crosswalk as well, that’s such a stereotype of New York!
4. Coffee or wine?
Wine, always! Coffee hurts my stomach and I do love a little glass of wine with dinner. My friends and I are always so busy that it can sometimes be hard to get together and plan a big night out, so I like to try to have them over to my apartment for a wine night (aka vent-sesh) every few weeks.
5. What’s one thing that dramatically improved the state of your hair?
Honestly, cutting it short(ish). I’ve been dyeing my hair for 6+ years and if I let it grow too long, and by that I mean waist length, it’ll just get pretty frizzy at the ends. There’s just a certain point where no product can fix the damage! Plus, I feel like my bob makes me look more grown-up, since I’m on the shorter side in height.
You’re welcome for the reminder, Katie! What color did you go with? I’m going to paint mine tonight after I shower (just got back from HIIT class); I’m going to do blue!
I did blue too! I did Scarab by H&M, which is a really cool blue with green, gold, and purple sheen (like a scarab!). The H&M formula is one of my absolute faves, and the brush is great too.
1. I’m going to go with black although neither sounds like my jam! Can I have it with glitter? That would help. 😀
2. Peace. Shutting out the noise to focus on the few things I can actually control.
3. So funny you asked this, because I did just 2 days ago! It was Girl’s Night, we were criusing in downtown Knoxville and I saw people walking around dressed up in traditional African designs to see Black Panther. I saw a trio taking pictures of their outfits together so I rolled down the window (my friend was driving, I was in the back seat) and shouted to them, “You look AMAZING!” The woman being photographed shouted back, “Thank you!” The joy on her face made my night. I’m just in love seeing all the pics on the internet, and in person! of people celebrating this movie through fashion. It is so freaking cool.
Side note: I simply cannot imagine you going off on someone! Blew my mind!
4. Wine! I’m not a coffee drinker. Can’t stand the stuff!
5. Not caring! Also, getting it dyed at a salon as opposed to a box from Walmart. HUGE difference!
Hi Jaclyn,
I bet you totally made that woman’s night! What a nice thing to do. 🙂
And haha… Yeah. I’m not the type to shout at strangers, but apparently that part of me gets unlocked when I’m carrying another human being around inside my body, LOL!
I hope you had a very nice Monday and that your week is off to a great start!
Don’t be discouraged – El Hub will learn. 🙂 And try to enjoy the silliness; you’ll miss it when you’re dealing with teenagers. HAHA!
1. White nail polish or black nail polish? I’m almost exclusively pale pink or clear so you’d think I’d pick white. But, no! If I was forced to choose, I’d go with black. It’s more slimming for my fingers. 😉
2. What are you striving for today? Just to get through it. First day back to work after the long weekend is always tough.
3. Have you ever shouted at a stranger? A few times, I’m ashamed to admit. Generally in defense of someone else or as a reply to someone else yelling. Almost always at a hockey game. 🙁 I’ve always been very quick to speak up. I’m trying to be better about that.
4. Coffee or wine? Oh, wine all day long. 🙂 Kidding. I save both coffee and wine for the weekends.
5. What’s one thing that dramatically improved the state of your hair? Same as you. I have to blow dry the top/bangs but I’ve been letting the rest air dry every day, for a couple of years (I think).
LOL at the streamers. That sounds like my husband.
1. White nail polish or black nail polish? Black!
2. What are you striving for today? To get through it sane
3. Have you ever shouted at a stranger? Yes
4. Coffee or wine? Wine, I don’t drink coffee (except for Mocha Frappucinos 😉 ).
5. What’s one thing that dramatically improved the state of your hair? The mid-90s. Big hair went out of style, and I stopped using blow-dryers and styling products every day.