we're all a little socially awkward at times

lady and cherries, a portrait.

tavi is an angel.

alex's book jacket photo

jen and ben, will you ever stop?

brian (my new mentor!) becomes our choral instructor.

a-dor-able.

little me. (on my walk to school today i realized that i'm the a.d.d. child of the program.)

little jen.

abbey told me she can't get through to me. deb was swoony. and in this picture, jen may be a little smitten. (today sara g told me that i need to grow up and think about my future. she's right. so i'm going to put together a six month plan to start a writers' retreat in somewhere in new york state.)

and then i poured an entire glass of sangria all over alex and dan.

game night at camp mfa.

I wonder where you are tonight/No answer on the telephone

In the morning, we practiced harmonizing.

By our third round, I'm pretty sure we had it down. Just ask everyone who was sitting around us.

After being workshopped today, I knew I needed to go out and have some fun.

But first, some really good news: I'm going to be Kasey's audience member on Who Wants To Be a Millionaire. He's been accepted as a contestant. Real words will pass between Meredith and myself. I'm going to be famous! (This isn't a joke.)

You're going to tire of my photos soon, I just know it. In the meantime...

Jess and Abbey hide from the reading at Cambridge Common. Abbey and I dream of a houseboat.

Chaney (nervous about spelling), Alana, and Leland rock the bod.

Strike a pose.

Cheers. (This is kind of Boston after all.)

My sponsor got her groove back.

I promised Abbey at least five of this series would appear on the blog. We've been breaking it down to Heart's Alone since 9:30 am.


Till now I always got by on my own

I never really cared until I met you. And now it chills me to the bone.

(We need chemistry, Abbey!) How do I get you alone?

Alone, Alone

My new favorite picture. (For more beautiful pics, refer to Jen G's site.)

Work All Day, Play All Night

Abbey, Jen, Ben, and Jess discuss reading our work aloud. (Except Jen appears to be on her cell phone.)

Leland arrives and offers gnome love.

Jen and Gili together without the use of g-chat.

Mentor stalkers, Gili and Abbey bond over their creepy behavior.

Adorable Billy and the gnome.

A tasty gnome treat for me.


Remember in the eighties (before digicams) when you could take a picture at the same time as someone else and their head would look like an explosion? I tried to reorchestrate that with Dan to no avail.



Abbey's back to school bag. Jen's cool foot.

trashy, gossipy blogger returns to school

(Here’s a picture of the merchandise in question. The avocado was purchased as non-organic. The cherries were purchased as grapes. The water was flat-out stolen. Deal with it. I guess I’m actually the one trying to deal with it.)

Third residency has begun! Don Share read tonight and he mentioned trashy, gossipy blogs and I thought about my blog and felt guilty but Sara leaned over and said she loved my blog, so there!

Good stuff seeing all these silly writerly folks. I can’t get over how happy I am to reunite. I began my evening with Sara G and Alana. We had some much needed pre-workshop venting over coffee at Simon's.

Big hugs with Michael and the love-fest with Brian has begun (at least on my end).

After the reception in which they've added wine to the menu (way to go, Steven!), Jessica helped me to do the right thing and we attended the reading. Then off to our first night at Cambridge Common for more wine and catching up.

I attempted to help Jen find a man thanks to her little gnome friend, Seamus (pictures to follow soon). This will be an exciting evening adventure for the next nine days.

I was seriously ogled by a scary, scary man with little fear and a lot of ogling to do. He followed us outside when we left and I was afraid he would follow us home, but he let it go. Thank goodness for Sara and Jess. Jess offered to make out with me to ward him off, but I let her know I am now officially exclusive. She reminded me that she’s engaged. It was her idea! (She’s going to be thrilled that this made it onto the blog, I’m sure.)

New music from Jen: The Replacements, Georgie James, Annie, and more
Some possible reading material: Deborah Eisenberg. Anybody know her writing?
Person who is online too much: Aimee
Most honored moment so far: Jen forwarded one of my stories to two friends. (I’m famous!)
New obsession: the ask.com commercial featuring Kato Kaelin. (Can you tell that I haven’t been around television in a long time?)
Loving that she busted out of the quiet zone: Breda

More Me Time

Another perfect, calm day in Cambridge. Went for my morning run and then walked around town reacquainting myself. I got coffee at my favorite local coffee shop (Simon’s), found a cute vintage dress for cheap (this is not New York!), browsed around bookstores, stole produce in the self checkout line at Shaw’s, and read for school.

I met up with Kimberley after work and we walked around Harvard Square until I found a good enough sandwich for the movies. I ended up with tuna fish on a baguette. (What kind of deli doesn’t have pumpernickel? There is no punch line.)

Right as we were leaving the deli, we ran into the famous Olga, who is a friend of my family’s and also the caterer for the Red Sox. I’d never met her before and she freaked out about how much I look like my parents. I used to get that I look like my dad, but now I guess I also resemble mom. Anyway, Olga’s great. I had already met her gorgeous daughter who I dreamed of making into my own personal shopper but was too shy to ask. Now I’ve met the root.

Kimberley went to her acting class and I saw Away From Her, which none of my New York friends were interested in going to with me. I got to the theater early enough to watch the longest army recruitment video I’ve ever seen. By the end, I was ready to join. I mean, I would really be in shape, you know?

The movie was mostly well done and smart. I could totally see Alice Munro all over it, which is a compliment. It’s definitely an old lady film and I was the youngest person there by far. (I always get a bit melancholy when I go to the movies alone.)

I walked home in the rain. (Kimberley said today is the first real day of summer. Is that true?) Here are some pictures from my day. (Look! A baby on a leash because Cambridge is a really dangerous place.) (And a picture of my dirty foot after a day of walking around in my flip-flops. I'm so hardcore.)

Remember The Time I Thought That I Could Be Happy Living In Boston?

Well, I was wrong. But it is good to be back. At least in the past fifteen minutes that I've actually spent at my sister's since arriving, I've been calm and content. I forgot how much I feel like I'm at a summer resort at Kimberley's. She's not here but I let myself in with the old key saying I invented ("Silver stay down, gold go up"). I'm sitting on the porch, the birds are chirping (not pigeons) and the sun is beginning to set. This is Cambridge.

Mostly I sat around and did nothing on the train. Here are some pictures and an angsty post to prove it:

I thought about taking the bus because the last time I took Amtrak, my train hit and killed a fifteen-year old boy. (I believe his name was Robert Castro.) But thinking about Aimee’s bus rides to and from Boston reminded me of how unbearable that mode of transportation can be. So I’m back on the train.

So far the ride has been quiet and I’ve been in a contemplative mood, watching Connecticut and all of its New Englandness fly by. The last time I was out of New York was for my second residency and I’m definitely due for a break.

I don’t know what this feeling is, an emptiness like I forgot to pack something for the trip or maybe this is just that old railroad mood I’ve almost forgotten about. Remember when I was living at Kimberley’s and commuting back and forth for job interviews and housing searches? In just seven months, my life has completely changed.

For some reason, I can’t get into my book, A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You by Amy Bloom. Right now, I’d rather sit back, turn up the Ipod and stare out the window.

Note to Breda: I'm back. I should be blogging regularly now that I'm away from New York's hustle. Thanks for your patience and dedication.

Movie to not watch ever: Escape From New York

Movie for romance: Paris, je t'aime

Music to ride the rails: The Littlest Birds by The Be Good Tanyas

Tonight's Goals: Empty voice mailbox, take bath, go to sleep.

I Guess I've Been Hiding

What to say, what to say??

Deb scolded me for not writing on ye olde bloge (that's Latin), so here you go, Deb.

My phone bill was over 200 bucks so I've cut off another form of communication. I won't be using my phone before 9 pm weekdays for the month. Punishment for impulsive behavior. I hope I learn a lesson.

My manuscripts are in! After receiving feedback from Jen G, I can't wait for my workshop. And I am ready to be smitten about Brian. Semester three is going to be solid gold.

I read Love Invents Us by Amy Bloom because Aimee said I'm like the main character (at least the younger version of her). The book was surprisingly inspiring and helped me slow down and develop one of my characters.

I now know that I have rooftop access on my building. For a basement dweller, this is kind of crucial to maintaining some degree of mental stability.

Um, what else? I'm thinking about applying to a bunch of artist housing lotteries. Does anyone know about these? If I could get cheaper housing, I wouldn't have to work full time and then I could write more. If you have any leads, please let me know.

I leave for Boston next week. I'm excited to see my big sister and my residency friends and of course, my beautiful genius mentor, Brian. (Who puts all her eggs in one basket?)

Footloose kind of took up my life for a week. My story refers to the movie. Seeing this film in my current life is really different than my memories of Kevin Bacon as a child. If you haven't seen it lately, by all means. You don't know what you're missing!

Truth: I've been a little down since I found out I have yet another small medical problem. I forgot that going to doctors also means learning what's wrong instead of what's right with my body. I'll be having minor surgery in August and I'm a bit daunted. Even though the results were good, the whole biopsy thing burnt me out. I hate to be a Negative Nancy, especially because it's not a very big deal in the scheme of medical stuff, but there you have it.

A pigeon pooped on me today. Good luck, right?

Been listening to: Jens Lekman
Been reading: workshop manuscripts
Been watching: Pee-wee's Playhouse (I heart Penny.)
Best new DVD purchase: Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael

Online Presence

I don't have an online presence. It's complicated why this is the case and I don't want to go into it, but I do want one. How do I go about becoming an online star?

Two days ago I found out that I'm somewhat popular anyway. According to Aimee, the second highest reason that people visit her website is that they are searching for me.

Gili Warsett Gili Warsett Gili Warsett
Gili Warsett Gili Warsett Gili Warsett

That's me.