I think I need a drink?

Hey everyone! Wow am I glad that Gloria set this up for everyone. I have been quite amused by all of your stories and have to say that I am quite jealous of your adventures! Sorry I have been MIA for so long. I have dedicated the past 4 hours of my life to trying to switch over email from ND email to alumni and forward it to a new gmail that i set up and to respond to emails that have been rapidly falling into my inbox that probably should have been answered over a month ago...oh well. I think that I have been in denial about life after undergrad and thus, refused to be proactive in getting anything important taken care of. Once again, oh well :) haha
Well, life has been pretty crazy around here. My summer started with a road trip to the west coast and then a 50 some hour ferry ride. It was a lot of fun, but I think I would have to really reconsider ever going on a cruise....unless there are lots of friends and booze. Let me tell you, it was a pretty boring ride. I would have been fine had I been by myself, but my dad just made me nervous. How? You might ask. Well, where I could sit and watch movies and read a book all day, he refused to read, listened to my ipod for 25 mins before gave up on that idea and instead, looked out the window for hours at a time while sitting next to me and asking me how my book was, telling me about the weather, wanting to play cards in the bar, etc etc etc. oh well. it was a bonding experience and we made fun of the "nature interpreter" who was "employed by the Tongass National Forest." I nicknamed her Suzy Sunshine. I just remembered that I composed a whole letter to you guys that I was going to email when I got home and off that ferry...but alas, I had forgotten about it. You might still get it and hear about me listening to "our flippered friends- how to tell the difference between a sealion and a seal." Hey, if I had to listen to it and and the tourists oohhhing and ahhhhing....we should all have to suffer! :) j/k....well maybe not.
After I got home, we got on the boat a few days later and have been fishing ever since. I got my halibut done and we are going into the 3rd week of salmon fishing. I tried to help a lady tie up her boat and as me and this other guy were pulling on the ropes to get it closer to the dock, the rope she tied around the post came loose and i happened to be leaning backward while pulling on it and went flying backwards into the ocean. Your favorite FLIPPER had to be fished out of the drink yet again. If I hear one more flipper joke...I swear.....
In other news: your weekly priest scandal update- Apparently people in the parish are not happy about my mother spending so much time with the priest and insist that she must be having an affair of something with him. Now, keep in mind, everyone in town is talking about this. Well apparently someone in town heard/ started the rumor, that he was coming to graduation at ND and I was quoted as "being livid" and this was sent to all of the church council and the bishop, etc. Well, this may have been true, but I didn't say anything to anyone in town about it, so I have no idea how this got out. So anyways, I got jumped by my mother about "WHO DID YOU TELL?" etc etc and I denied saying anything and that Jill had called me asking about it before I said anything and so then mom wanted me to demand that Jill give up her sources. OH DEAR. Needless to say...I just refused. I guess that shit hit the fan about the whole priest scandal 08/09 while I was gone one week and she wrote a letter to the church council just blasting them for believing/starting/supporting the rumor etc. All I can say is, OH JEEZE and THE RECORD KEEPS PLAYING, THE SAME OLD SONG! Sorry to bore some of you, but others who have been hearing about it for months probably can get a good laugh from this. Also, someone reported to the church council that my dad has been "stalking" the church to see if my mom's car is there when in fact, he is just out for a walk and only walked by the church 2 times in the month that he went on an exercise kick and could care less what she is doing or not doing with the priest. As I pointed out, if someone saw him "stalking" the church, there has to be someone else stalking the church to observe this. MERDE!
OTHER: The cousin (Nic) got his pregnant gf's parents to cosign a loan (or someone else, who i think might be a biker gang) for 175,000 so he could buy this big aluminum boat out of bristol bay and a permit. What a joke. Well, people used to call him the "evil seed" but are now calling him "the tinman" because the boat is aluminum and like the tinman, he has no heart. I got a chuckle out of that one.
There is a guy who gets called "Mayday" or "Mayday Ray" because in his early years fishing he was always calling in Mayday to the coast guard because his boat broke down and no one would go help him. Well anyways, he gets on the radio last week to bitch out a boat that passes him too fast in a narrow spot in the Narrows and someone jokingly gets on the radio and goes "mayday mayday" -obviously in reference to him and his being a dumbass. Well, the coast guard thought it was a real mayday call and Ray wouldn't tell them the story but kept harping on about this boat that passed him. So, the coast guard sent out a boat and team to investigate after spending an hour trying to pinpoint the location of the mayday call. i don't think they launched a helicopter, but if they did, $40,000 tax dollars were spent on a dumb hoax due to stupidity.
I got in at the University of Oregon.
Waiting to hear if they are going to give me any scholarship money.
trying to sell my car. Someone called and said "well I just wanted to know if that price is REALLY what you are asking for it." Since then, I have changed the # on the sign so they can talk to my dad because I'm scared to answer the phone and get another mean call like that.
I'm going slightly crazy because I miss you all so much and so much reminds me of stuff that we did together and memories and when I try to tell other people about them...they just don't find it as funny or look at me like I am crazy. EX- midnight tbell runs; I saw a replica of Angelica's drinking bucket from Florida while I was at the bar and I broke out in chuckles.
As a result of all of this- the title of the note- i think i need a drink?
My new email is tracy.a.welch@gmail.com or twelch2@alumni.nd.edu.
I love you all and sorry for the long and rambling message and applaud you if you made it to the end!
~Tracy~