37. Charles and Emma Darwin.
_{Tangent: Before I continue, I should mention - Emma's dress in this picture is extremely inspired by this painting by Franz Winterhalter as well as this historical interpretation of Cinderella. Charles himself probably looks nothing like the Darwin you're used to seeing because 1) he's not a Santa lookalike and 2) the one portrait I found of him when he was younger made him look bald, and so I tried to use a mixture of that picture, Henry Ian Cusick's portrayal of him from Darwin's Darkest Hour, and Paul Bettany's portrayal from the movie Creation.}

So when I was taking Physical Anthropology, I had to learn about evolution and, obviously, Charles Darwin. I honestly had never thought of Darwin as anyone particularly interesting until my professor had mentioned his marriage to Emma Wedgwood.

And then I became hooked. The more I read about Charles Darwin for class, the more fascinated I became and the more I fell in love with him. Charles Darwin went from being just some scientist who came up with the theory of natural selection to being one of my alltime favorite people and scientists, right up there next to Noam Chomsky. It didn't help when I had to do a research paper on the evolution of language and its acquisition and I read The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex. Because then I read his idea of the "musical protolanguage" and I was completely enamoured because Darwin is the reason why linguists are now able to be considered credible as scientists.

But the one thing that made Darwin become real to me was his marriage to his wife. Charles - the ever curious, ever scientific, father of natural selection and evolution that he is - at first struggled with the idea of marriage and even wrote a LIST of reasons why he should and shouldn't marry. Under the "to not marry" reasons, he wrote "children", "can't travel", "less money for books", and "terrible loss of time. Under "to marry" were the reasons "more money for books" and "better than a dog, anyhow".

But then if I married tomorrow: there would be an infinity of trouble & expense in getting & furnishing a house,—fighting about no Society—morning calls—awkwardness—loss of time every day.

Charles eventually proposed and fell in love, in that order, with Emma Wedgwood. However, Emma was a devout Unitarian. Although Charles had originally gone to school to become a clergymen, by the time he stepped off the HMS Beagle his opinion of God had already changed. Prior to their marriage they struggled with this question of religion a lot, and it was the subject of many of their letters.

Still, they had a good marriage. They had 10 children together, and coped through the death of three of them. They loved each other so dearly that I can't help but just love them - Charles has written some surprisingly poetic things about his own dear wife that I can relate to very much. Before they married, he once wrote in a letter,

My own dear Emma, I kiss the hands with all humbleness and gratitude, which have so filled up for me the cup of happiness -- It is my most earnest wish I may make myself worthy of you... Most affectionately yours, Chas. Darwin.

At their wedding, he said this, which I honestly think one day I'll end up using this quote at my own wedding because it rings so true to me as well:

"Excuse this much egotism, I give it to you, because I think you will humanise me, and soon teach me there is greater happiness, than building theories and accumulating facts in silence and solitude."

And one of the most poignant quotes from Emma's letters, to me, is this:

Everything that concerns you concerns me and I should be most unhappy if I thought we did not belong to each other for ever.

Not long ago I read Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith by Deborah Heiligman, which is a really good biography which focuses on their marriage and devotion to each other, through the publication of On the Origin of Species to both of their deaths. It is an extremely good book and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to see the more human side of these two. One of the most memorable parts is near the end of the book, when Heligman describes Charles' death.

As he slipped away slowly into unconsciousness, he told her what he had said many times before, what she already knew, but what he had to say again: "Remember what a good wife you have been to me."

I in general can't help but look up to both of them. I love these two so very, very dearly and look to them as an example of a love we should really admire. Darwin himself - the scientist, the observer, and the surprising writer and artist - is someone I relate to a lot in many different aspects and has been a huge inspiration for my work on language acquisition as well. I hope to one day become a scientist worthy of his praise and to find a love as beautiful as Charles and Emma. ♥

38. Meeting Andres' dad and little brother for the first time.
This is a lot more thrilling to me than most people would understand, so bear with me XD

A while back I had mentioned to Andres one of my insecurities from my last relationship was that I never, ever met my ex's family or friends. This really upset me because even though my ex had been a part of my life for six months and wanted to be in a very serious relationship (as in staying together forever and getting married serious) with me and had met all of my friends and family, I never once met the people in his life that were important.

Unfortunately, this turned up during a fight the two of us had, so it wasn't necessarily one of the best times to bring it up.

Fortunately, Andres actually kept this in mind because not long after I met his dad and little brother for the first time when they gave me a ride home. I ended up bonding with Armand in the backseat over a Pokemon guide he had, and spent the whole time talking about Pokemon Platinum haha. But it made me really glad - Andres' family are really, really nice people and it meant a lot to me to actually meet them. I was smiling the whole way home.

40. Cooking green beans with onions, tomatoes, lemon, and butter.


I actually learned this recipe from one of my favorite blogs, Smitten Kitchen. The haricot vert recipe is so simple, easy, and delicious and I LOVE it. In general I really love to eat green beans, and this recipe is no exception. I sadly always end up using onions instead of shallots because I end up having onions on hand more often than shallots, but it's still just as delicious. It's definitely worth a try!