maria gil ulldemolins

Remember the fabulousness of Sarah Key? If I recall correctly, she mentioned that an exercise she proposes to her poetry students is to list “10 things they know to be true”. Since she is now in my unlikely “list of women I’d like to have tea with and maybe pay them to become my friends” (Miranda July, Louise Bourgeois, Camilla Engman et. alt. are also in there), I thought doing such list would bring me closer to completing mine (one step at a time).

Nonetheless, working in innovation as I do (it’s true) I thought I’d shift the exercise slightly: what about 10 things I know to be true of 2011, and 10 things I’d like to be true in 2012? I thought you’d like that (there is not much point in making a top 10 posts of this blog because it has about 10 real posts). Before I go ahead, though, please let me explain that these are lists of small things. I found myself writing one for 2012 about cancer! and feminism! and animal testing! and I just reminded myself that a) we would all probably ask for the same kind of thing and b) I am not the Messiah and cannot make all of these things happen just by writing them down.

So, here:

10 THINGS I KNOW TO BE TRUE OF 2011

Who lives with his parents until he’s 30?
Intern Sponge Bob!

(a witty comment on the lowsyness of the job market for young people that translates poorly from Spanish)

1. We took the streets. Big time.
2. We grew aware of our own temporality, of the possibilities of writing a tiny bit of history and of the chance of growing old and having a tale to repeat over and over to the youger ones.
3. Lots of dictators died and Nando’s (a South African Chicken restaurant) made a rather brilliant ad about it. This kept Mr. M. busy.
4. I wrote a thesis for my MA on the feminine imagery of the contemporary Western sense of smell. And it was awesome, and it has been the first academic text of mine my parents have been able to read because it was in Spanish.
5. I went to Morocco and drank really sweet mint tea. I lived in Paris for three weeks and bought a perfume that smells like slightly burned baguette.
6. Mr. M. and I decided to get married after cohabiting for 7 years as a couple. Yay!
7. I started working with a sustainable brilliant enterprise despite the economic chaos.
8. I failed to start a co-working space but managed to star a monthly live forum of discussion called La Hora FeTÉn.
9. I decided to close Nosideup.
10. I stablished really beautiful friendships with really amazing ladies (I had male friends mostly for a really long time).

10 THINGS I’D LIKE TO BE TRUE IN 2012

1. The world will not end yet.
2. Mr. M. and I will defeat the so-bad-it-would-be-hilarious-if-it-wasn’t-happening-to-me paperwork and will successfully and happily get married in Madrid in Setember.
3. I’ll grow into a real professional. True story.
4. I’ll see my friends grow into real professionals. Paid positions and all.
5. I’ll make this site grow into a decent presentation of the real professional I’ll have become.
6. I will still fit in my tiny flat despite the ever-increasing collection of books and board-games.
7. I will be an action lady.
8. I will have read amazing, inspiring books (those that will fit perfectly in my Billy book shelves).
9. I will make a difference, somewhere, somehow (like the candid soul that started this page, and has made a difference in the cute to hysterical ratio in my life).
10. I will write poetic lists more gracefully than in 2011

I shall leave you with the audio-only video (these things exist, apparently) of “Focs artificials” by Antònia Font, a fantastic (quite in a literal sense) music group from Mallorca. The lyrics are on waiting for the loved one. Since we are waiting for 2012 today, I thought it was quite fitting:

M’he confitat ses mans
per si és vera que t’he d’esperar;
he cremat es alcohols
i m’he engatat de lletugues i líquens i flors.

He superat sa son
i he pogut arrebossar-me d’arròs;
t’he fet es berenar
amb campanes i molsa i focs artificials.

(I have candied my hands

just in case it’s true I’ve got to wait for you;

I’ve burnt the spirits

and I’ve soaked myself in lettuces, lichens and flowers

I’ve got over my sleep

and I’ve managed to batter myself with rice;

I’ve prepared the tea for you

with bells and moss and fire works)

Happy entry to 2012!