Photo Flap

Julia and David

This is me with my husband David.   I met him at a Renaissance Faire in 2004, where he was with his camera taking wonderful shots, as always.   He was a part of the Guild of the House of Boann, whose guild master was (and is) the celebrated Katheryn Matthews.

My two boys, Yusuf and Omar, got into the Renaissance picture  pretty quickly, dressing up and stepping out with me to play act with mom. Could there be anything better? I love playing with them, as I know does their father in his own way.  I feel happy my children have learned to live as inheritors of two cultures.

Yusuf

Yusuf is studying to be an architect like his father.  God Willing, he will do well because he has been leaving beautiful, detailed,imaginative drawings scattered everywhere he goes (he keeps the most important ones with him, of course) since his early teen years.  Coming to live in America precisely at the moment he would enter high school was an amazing experience for him.  He had never been allowed into a school with girls before (at least, not since kindergarten). All of his male cousins in Saudi Arabia were jealous. Besides architecture, Yusuf enjoys designing and making furniture. When he visits home, he writes short scripts for movie clips that we film and then laugh hysterically over.

Omar and Uncle Steven

Omar wants to be a video game designer, but with a twist: he prefers retro games–platform, 2-D.   Like his brother, he is good at drawing and likes to put movies together, although in Omar’s case, it is of himself shuffling, which can  be described as walking on air to electronic music. His latest Arabian shuffling clip, to me, conveys the bridge between cultures that so many of us have crossed in our lifetimes:

Dad and his rare '37 Cord

My father, Ray Simpson is a retired senior engineer at Philco-Ford), ex-marine, inventor and car enthusiast. He reads the L.A. Times book reviews every Sunday and then calls me to ask, “Why aren’t I reading about you in here?”  His pride in the quality of my writing is the best award a writer could ask for, especially from a father who has been reading interesting books all his life.

This page has the following sub pages.

• Dolls and Faires