So…what is the Monday Poll?
Excellent question! It isn’t, contrary to its name, an actual poll, like with little clicky buttons. It’s just a list of five more or less random questions I’ve been posting on this blog every Monday morning for the past quadrillion years (since 2007). I love reading your answers, and it helps me get my week off to a good start. ?
1. Matching holiday pajamas for the whole family: cute or cheesy?
CUUUUUTE — especially if your family takes a lot of pictures like mine does. Also, if you’re going to “go there,” go all the way, man! Use PJs with the most obnoxious print you can find, but please — for the sake of the person in the family who has a bladder the size of a pea (ME) — don’t get onesies, because they are a PITA for the bladder-challenged.
2. How often do you go braless out in public?
Not often. At all. I have four words for you: HELL TO THE NO. I don’t need those things flapping around and blowing in the wind as I’m reaching up to get a box of cat food (that is always out of reach) on the highest shelf. Plus, with my luck, the zombie invasion would probably start while I was out of the house, so I would be stuck in the apocalypse without a bra…which would be TERRIBLE.
3. What’s the best breakup song?
Seems like I’ve been married since the Mesozoic Era, but back in the day Jen and I would bump En Vogue’s Give It Up, Turn It Loose during boy woes.
4. Describe the most recent pic you took on your phone.
I would if I could… See the pic at the top of this post? ☝️
5. Best/worst Thanksgiving side dish?
Is there a such thing as a worst Thanksgiving side dish? 🙂 I’ll pretty much eat everything with equal enthusiasm, but if I’m forced to choose, then I guess my choice for “best” would be mashed potatoes and gravy (teh carbs!), and my pick for “worst” would be the lame-o bags of generic store-bought salad.
There’s always at least one at the table (why?) that nobody touches.
Is there a snack…
That takes you back to your childhood? For me, it’s dried mangoes, which is why I had to stop in the middle of a crowded Costco aisle to take a picture of the display at the top of this post.
When I was really little, the only time I ever got dried mangoes was when relatives brought them over from the Philippines, so I only got them once or twice a year, but now you can get them in bulk at Costco, which BLOWS MY MIND.
I actually didn’t buy one of the bags from Costco because I currently do not need a massive bulk-sized bag of dried mangoes in my life, LOL! They’re basically giant bags of irresistible fruity-goodness candy.
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
P.S. Question time! Here they are to copy/paste with your answers in a comment. Talk to you soon.
1. Matching holiday pajamas for the whole family: cute or cheesy?
2. How often do you go braless out in public?
3. What’s the best breakup song?
4. Describe the most recent pic you took on your phone.
5. Best/worst Thanksgiving side dish?
Here goes.
1. Matching holiday pajamas for the whole family: cute or cheesy? Very cheesy.
2. How often do you go braless out in public? Never, my boobs are almost down to my
bellybutton.
3. What’s the best breakup song? I don’t know who the original composer is but Kenny Loggins singing “You Don’t Know Me”‘. I always lose it when I hear it.
4. Describe the most recent pic you took on your phone. The three of us at Temple University. We were visiting the school as a possible choice for Zack.
5. Best/worst Thanksgiving side dish? The best side dish for me are basic mashed potatoes, although I love all the sides. I admit that I am not the biggest fan of brussel sprouts. I’d rather have my favorite stringbeans with lemon pepper butter any time.
So, I hope you are safe. The images of the wild fires in California are horrible. It seems like it never ends there.
Be well and stay safe!
Hi Jane,
We’re south of the Butte county fire, so we’re OK, but the smoke in the air is heavy, though. I can smell it and see it the moment I walk outside. Scary stuff.
Sorry, I forgot to answer your snack question. For me it would probably Cracker Jack.
I love caramel popcorn, and you always got a prize in the box!
1. Matching holiday pajamas for the whole family: cute or cheesy?
Cute
2. How often do you go braless out in public?
Never, NEVER.
3. What’s the best breakup song?
You Oughta Know – Alanis Morissette
4. Describe the most recent pic you took on your phone.
Mistake click of the family room floor while I was trying to escape the Facebook photo function.
5. Best/worst Thanksgiving side dish?
Best – stuffing and homemade rolls. Worst – any sweet potato dish with added sugar, marshmallows, and/or pumpkin pie spices. Mashed sweet potato with roasted garlic and parmesan is great though.
1. Matching holiday pajamas for the whole family: cute or cheesy?
Cute! Is this a thing and how do I get on it??
2. How often do you go braless out in public?
Often…especially now I’m breastfeeding. I’m a 32B so no one notices most of the time.
3. What’s the best breakup song?
Aw man…I’ve never been through a terrible breakup with a romantic partner (lots with friends and family members) but my roomie in uni used to blast Rihanna’s “Take A Bow” when she broke up with her uni bf. Oh, the drama.
4. Describe the most recent pic you took on your phone.
It’s a screen capture of monitor image of my child sleeping.
5. Best/worst Thanksgiving side dish?
Best – any sides!
Worst – the turkey (I dislike turkey)!
How can you go without a bra while bf? I need to know your secret because i leaked like crazy, as in non-stop. I swear all she had to do was look at me and my bra or nursing pad was wet.
1. Matching holiday pajamas for the whole family: cute or cheesy?
Cheesy for me, cute for others who can pull it off! Maybe if I had a daughter. But the menfolk would never go for it.
2. How often do you go braless out in public?
Braless right now. Ahhhh. But it’s winter, and I’ve had a huge coat on whilst walking about today. When that’s not the scenario, the answer is, never. So it’s a seasonal thing!
3. What’s the best breakup song?
“You Don’t Own Me” (Lesley Gore)
4. Describe the most recent pic you took on your phone.
My hound, ears drooping, cutely snuggling by the fire.
5. Best/worst Thanksgiving side dish?
Best: yams. Also cranberry sauce – bring it on!! Worst: tasteless beans with tasteless almond slivers. I eat them out of obligation every year! But I’m also more than a little grateful for whoever took the time to make them. Thanksgiving meals are so much work!! With a great payoff.
Amy, you crack me up! Don’t you feel cold without a bra though? I feel like mine is a extra layer to seal in warmth. lol
Wow I’ve never, ever thought of a bra as insulation!! Maybe a sports bra or tshirt bra. But I wear those Chantelle 3-part lace ones that are really sheer. TMI but there ya go!
Yeah, I need all the layers I can get! I think of mine as an extra layer of “fur” to protect the girls against the elements, ha ha ha! P.S. Chantelle bras are the best. I get them on sale at Nordstrom when I can!
1. Matching holiday pajamas for the whole family: cute or cheesy?
Cheesy but my husband would try to put them on the cats just to drive them crazy. I keep warning him cats are good at the long slow game of revenge
2. How often do you go braless out in public?
Never
3. What’s the best breakup song?
Been married since the last century so I can’t come up with one
4. Describe the most recent pic you took on your phone.
A picture of a ferret at the National Museum of Natural History
5. Best/worst Thanksgiving side dish?
Mashed potatoes best
Anything with gravy on it worst
Hey Melissa,
I have a mashed potato recipe that will change your life. Do you want it?
Sure – always love new recipes
Hi Melissa,
It’s the third recipe in this post: Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes. I got it from a Williams-Sonoma cookbook years ago, and it’s a go to!
“I don’t need those things flapping around and blowing in the wind as I’m reaching up” You cracked me up again with your comment! Too hilarious! “Those things flapping around”! HAHAHAHAHA
So, 2, I’d be a big NO on that, too. Like, no way ever.
3. Best (saddest) breakup song EVER – Jackson Browne “Sky Blue and Black”
4. Don’t own a smart phone, so no pictures
5. Thanksgiving side dish – fresh cranberries with only about half the sugar the recipe calls for. And I’m with Melissa on the gravy. I never have liked gravy. I don’t count the stuffing as a side-dish since I put it inside the turkey to cook it so it’s just a part of the turkey as far as I’m concerned.
Hi Kellly,
Hahaha! It’s so true though. Mine have a mind of their own, if I’m braless, they don’t listen! LOL
I’ve never heard that song… Will have to give it a listen ASAP.
Oh, that song is THE SADDEST breakup song I’ve ever heard. It’s worth a listen. Can’t remember what album it’s on but you can watch it on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaT04YFgAIY
so sad …
1. Cute AND cheesy in the best way!
2. At least once a week! Especially when I can just throw on a sweatshirt and no one knows.
3. Well, it wasn’t a romantic breakup but when I had trouble with friends I played Papa Roach (Last Resort) and LinkinPark (In the End)
4. My husband and 4 year old cuddling on the massive bean bag watching tictok. ❤️
5. Best: green bean casserole. I eat the shit out of that stuff! Worst: anything that’s not a traditional Thanksgiving side. This is not time to be creative! Comfort food all the way.
Childhood snack: the only thing I can think of at the moment is cracker Jack’s! I didn’t have it often but the excitement of the little prize in the box was the best. The prizes were way better back then!
Hi Jaclyn,
I’m with you 100% on foods needing to be comforting on T-day, and I absolutely DO NOT WANT to be blindsided by something “creative.” My best friend Cindy once made mashed potatoes with peas for their family dinner and she was shocked everyone threw a fit, and I was like, “GIRL! This is not the time to put your spin on something.”
P.S. My favorite Cracker Jack prizes were the tattoos.
“this is not the time to put your spin on something.” ? So true though.
I guess I’m old fashioned that way? Or maybe I’m a grumpy goat, ha ha! Are you making thanksgiving dinner this year?
1. Matching holiday pajamas for the whole family: cute or cheesy?
Cute, though we haven’t gone that way. Not sure what the husband would think. But when my two older boys wear their matching Christmas PJs from last year it melts my heart. Gotta get all three something matching this year for sure!
2. How often do you go braless out in public?
Never, 40D and I don’t like going braless at home either except to sleep. Skin on skin means sweaty boobs and it’s very not cute. ?
3. What’s the best breakup song?
Don’t have a breakup song per se but Possibility by Lykke Li has been my Sad Song for a while now.
4. Describe the most recent pic you took on your phone.
My face trying to get my fotd for the gram, of course.
5. Best/worst Thanksgiving side dish?
Yeast rolls, cranberries with everything. Not worst but just kind of boring for me is mashed potatoes. I like them but feel like it’s more an everyday thing. Feels like filler. ?
WHAT?! How can you not love mashed potatoes? I live for the spuds, lady! GIMME THE CARBS!
Happy Monday! I can’t believe how quickly November is flying by.
1. Matching holiday pajamas for the whole family: cute or cheesy?
Cheesy
2. How often do you go braless out in public? Never. I have very large boobs, and they’d just be in the way.
3. What’s the best breakup song? I like the message of Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive.” (I met my husband when I was 16, so I’ve never had a song-worthy breakup.)
4. Describe the most recent pic you took on your phone. A picture of a mirror compact I was given. It has a vintage-like picture of a pretty girl dressed as a witch.
5. Best/worst Thanksgiving side dish? Best — dressing. Worst — tie between green bean casserole and yams with marshmallows on top.
Snack: This sounds awful, but candy cigarettes. My great-grandfather used to take us on walks to the local market and buy them for us. He’d also let me help him roll his cigarettes. He told me never to smoke factory-made cigarettes, because they’d give people cancer. He lived to be nearly 100, so maybe he was onto something with the hand-rolling. lol He was one of the few relatives we got to see somewhat regularly, and he was a loving adult male figure in my life. I still miss him. (No, I didn’t grow up to be a smoker.)
Hi Rachel,
I remember those candy cigarettes. We’d ride our bikes to the corner store and get them along with Lemonheads and Jawbreakers (by the way, I’m not a smoker either). You’re so lucky to have had a grandfather because I really didn’t know either of mine. I had one meal with my mom’s dad; it was lunch, and the whole village showed up (he was a farmer in the rural Philippines). I met my dad’s father briefly, for about 10 minutes, and we talked about dogs. You were so, so lucky.
1. Matching holiday pajamas for the whole family: cute or cheesy?
Oh no, I’ve always hated the idea of someone dressed like me (I don’t understand why parents do that with siblings).
2. How often do you go braless out in public?
Always, thanks to patriarchy manboobs don’t need one.
3. What’s the best breakup song?
Love in the dark from Adele’s 25, actually sums up my last break up.
4. Describe the most recent pic you took on your phone.
A scary highway that you have to walk to go to a friend’s house.
5. Best/worst Thanksgiving side dish?
We don’t celebrate it, but I love mashed potatoes and I’m not crazy about turkey.
Childhood snack: there was this candy from Milky Way that was half milk cream and half chocolate cream that you had to squeeze to eat it. Here’s a TV ad from 1999 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWs1eJz6pec
Germany has been good, but at the same time so stressing, I feel my slogan has been: Bitches get the job done.
Oh my! That is an interesting mantra for life. Here’s mine: “you get more bees with honey.” I have to remind myself of it every damn day though, HA HA!
Are you freezing yet?
1. Matching holiday pajamas for the whole family: cute or cheesy? Cute! I’ve never done it with my family, but this may be the year, my girls are 13 and 16, they’ll love it! Trust me! Lol!
2. How often do you go braless out in public? Nev-ah! The girls shall be supported!
3. What’s the best breakup song? Pretty much anything from Alanis Morisette’s first album!
4. Describe the most recent pic you took on your phone. 8 years ago a girlfriend of mine sent me a tiara because I had commented on a FB post that I had never worn one. This weekend was my Grandma’s 92nd birthday and the family got together to celebrate. So I brought the tiara to get pics with everyone in it. The last 20+ Pics are my family members, and my dog, in the tiara!
5. Best/worst Thanksgiving side dish? I’m not a big fan of sweet potatoes with brown sugar and marshmallows on them. It feels like I should be eating that with ice cream, not turkey.
Hi Stephanie Smith,
Aww, I love the story of your tiara!
P.S. That Alanis album is still one of my ’90s staples. SO good. I have to listen to it in its entirety again one of these days!
1. Matching holiday pajamas for the whole family: cute or cheesy? Cheesy, having said that, I have photographic evidence of our family with matching outfits ?
2. How often do you go braless out in public? Never!
3. What’s the best breakup song? I can’t think of any! Maybe Kesha’s Praying?
4. Describe the most recent pic you took on your phone. We went to an RnB festival and Usher was the headline act, so it was of Usher!
5. Best/worst Thanksgiving side dish? We don’t celebrate Thanksgiving here in Oz, so I will have to modify the answer for Christmas instead, brussel sprouts has to be the worst side dish and the best would be any salads! It’s hot here during Christmas ???
Hi Meta,
Ooh, that Kesha song is a good one. Fun fact: she’s one of the co-writers! Maybe that’s why when she sings it, it’s just so powerful. First time I heard it I cried.
1. Matching holiday pajamas for the whole family: cute or cheesy?
I admit, it’s a little cheesy. I’ve never figured out why people do it. But then, one must realize I came from a family that would drive two days to get to my grandparents’ house when I was little and on the 23rd (and often the 24th), we would get dressed up in fancy dresses and suits to go to midnight Mass. [Note: My Grams’ old church was extra traditional. Midnight Mass was at 12 AM sharp. It also did the whole play which would take the extra hour. It was a long, long mass.] After that, we went home for early, early breakfast, then opened gifts on the 24th. Only after that were we permitted to hit the hay. I often fell asleep in my dress. I don’t understand the whole “matching pajamas” thing.
2. How often do you go braless out in public?
All of the time. I have small boobs. I get away with it. >.>
3. What’s the best breakup song?
Well, when I said good bye to my NFP for good, Fight Song by Rachel Platten was playing, so I’ll say that one. Incidentally, that song has also played every time I’ve gotten a tattoo. Perhaps it’s a theme song for me (but I tend to think The Show Must Go On by Queen is my song.)
4. Describe the most recent pic you took on your phone.
It’s not a photo, but a video of Bree playing with a toy. She plays now! IT’S A THING!
5. Best/worst Thanksgiving side dish?
Best: my grams’ potato puff. That stuff is godly. Potatoe-y goodness of yum. Potato and cheese and paprika and yuuuuuum. My mom makes it now since my grams’ has died (but it still isn’t my grams’.)
Worst: I LOATHE the smell of green bean casserole. DISGUSTING.
1. Matching holiday pajamas for the whole family: cute or cheesy?
Cute and cheesy!
2. How often do you go braless out in public?
Very very rarely, and when I do it’s really fast or I’m confined to my car or something. XD
3. What’s the best breakup song?
I really love Sara Bareilles’ “Bittersweet”. I particularly love it because it’s from the perspective of someone instigating the breakup, but both parties are still fond of each other; it’s just that the relationship isn’t right for the time/situation anymore. I love how it plays out as a thank you and a lamentation of the end of a relationship that was no longer viable.
4. Describe the most recent pic you took on your phone.
A landscape shots when we went out for my husband’s birthday. 🙂
5. Best/worst Thanksgiving side dish?
Best – I love mashed potatoes with gravy~
Worst – I’m not that fond of stuffing, but maybe I just haven’t had one that I really like yet.
1. Matching holiday pajamas for the whole family: cute or cheesy?
Cute-ish? I’d prefer coordinating ones.
2. How often do you go braless out in public?
Rarely outside the house. I’ll wear soft sports bras from target out, however.
3. What’s the best breakup song?
Love will tear us apart by Joy Division or alternately Killing in the name of by RATM just so you can shout “F you I won’t do what you tell me” at your soon to be ex. Or also Carrie Underwood before he cheats or Hold Up by Bey…
4. Describe the most recent pic you took on your phone.
A pic of my cat in the family room staring at me 😛
5. Best/worst Thanksgiving side dish?
That horrible baked green bean dish with mushroom soup and fried onions… it’s always overcooked!
Omg Karen, this was a fun post! I seriously think we’re either sisters or cousins, LOL! I also had the same reaction to the dried mango as you! I’d only get those as a child when a friend or relative came back from the P.I. so to get them at Costco! Mind blowing! ??? Other posts I totally relate to was your bad haircuts (as a kid) post a few weeks back and also a post where you talked about the Urban Decay fragrance smelling like J & J Baby Cologne. Or even how you talk about your mom-she sounds a lot like my mom. My mom doesn’t buy anything at full price! LOL. Anyways, thanks for you relatable posts!
Was away for a family wedding without electronic devices and just got to catching up on social media things. Even though they’re not from my childhood, I love that brand of dried mangoes. They’re so much better than the dried mangoes in the bulk bins. My local grocer only gets the small bags and doesn’t always have them. But when I see them I buy multiple bags at once.
For the record, Cracker Jack reminds me of my childhood and watching the Detroit Tigers play baseball with my Dad.