Kelly Welch
What’s your name and where do you live?
Kelly Welch. Sherwood, OR.
When did you start listening to TBTL? How did you find the show?
Back in the olden days, there was a promo for TBTL on The Splendid Table - I had been living alone (for the first time) for close to a year after ending my engagement, and the promo said something about the podcast feeling like you were in a room with a couple of your good friends and you just were along for the ride. I mean, later hearing that TBTL's mission was to cure global loneliness, that seemed so apt for what I was seeking, and I found it. The first episode I heard was "That's a Tuna, Bro" so it would have been late September 2015, I believe.
How would your friends describe you?
My oldest best friend: "I'd generally go with homo sapiens."
My new(er) bestie: "Very intelligent, serious, but you can also unwind and have fun or be goofy, mature, confident, passionate about your hobbies and beautiful!"
What was your favorite cereal when you were a kid?Is it still your fav?
We never got the good stuff when I was a kid because my mom hates sugar and salt and joy and fun. When I would get good cereal, I would go overboard on it. My absolute favorite is Cinnamon Toast Crunch (formerly with 1% milk, now with vanilla soy milk), but in my older, more decrepit, fiber-requiring body, things like granola are quite enjoyable too.
What food do you love to eat the most of?
Anything carb-y and savory. One of my favorite snacks is toasted sourdough bread, sprinkled with salt and nutritional yeast (nooch), and drizzled with olive oil. I love pasta, too, especially with some vegan butter and vegan cheese (maybe also with some nooch). If it didn't completely wreck my mouth, salt & vinegar chips would be up there, too. One time I ate so many the inside of my lips started peeling off and I didn't immediately connect the two and almost called my doctor.
What’s the best or worst nickname you ever had?
In addition to being a no-fun-nelly, my mom also didn't do the "test your child's name for cruel rhyming potential in the schoolyard" so I got Smelly Belch for a few years there.
If you could play one song on TBTL, what would it be?
Get Your Complex On by Charmparticles
What’s a special skill that you have?
I have been involved in competitive debate since I was 16, and after spending multiple years competing in high school and college, I transitioned to coaching, had a nervous breakdown, and then came back to part-time coaching about a year ago and it's been amazing, fulfilling, and healed a lot of my previous resentments related to the activity (e.g. it was bad at being very inclusive when I was the age of my students, and having an emotionally intelligent coach was a rarity). And every once in a while I join a practice round and "let them" beat me.*
*they whoop me, I am rusty
What’s a skill you *wish* you had?
Anything to do with music, like playing the piano! I never learned to read music, despite taking guitar in HS where the teacher would not let us use tab, and being in choir for years. I just went "oh uh that's a higher note and that's a lower note, couldn't tell you what the note IS" and sang by ear. I bought a Pandemic Ukulele so if anyone wants a ukulele, uh, "for sale, pandemic ukulele, lightly used."
If you were driving down the street and you saw Luke and Andrew on the sidewalk, what would you yell at them as you drove past?
"Is it too early to get a fish sandwich?!"
(Side note, I was in the audience when Luke did his Darcelle's MC-ing appearance, and other MCs had asked audience questions, but Luke DIDN'T, and if he had asked the crowd for audiences I would be asking him exactly that.)
Can other Tens find you on social media?
I am @bloodlesscoup on Instagram where you can direct all ukulele-related inquiries, and see photos of my manicures mostly. You can also search me by name on FB and I'll see you around the sTens group, my dudes.