Options

Met mom for lunch yesterday at Lolo's chicken and waffles. The place is so popular now, that they have valet parking during lunch. To clarify- this is chicken and waffles, south of downtown, in a city which is eponymous for sprawl and vast expanses of concrete and asphalt, and they still valet. Actually, its a good thing- getting people used to valet parking is a step towards changing the obscene required parking ordinances.

Anyway, lunch was good, everything they do is good- the chicken, the cheese grits, best fried okra I've had in a long, long time. From there, I walked to downtown Phoenix to Cartel Coffee and basically worked on plans for the future. I have a few options:

1. Follow through with Tempest and stick out this development project with Studio Ma, which will run until the end of February. Help mom and Larry move and continue to look for work in Germany and Boston. This project is under the aegis of the Project Rising incubator, and basically gets pitched to the city of Phoenix in the first few days of March after the COP issues its request for proposals. At the end of February, fly to Houston and on to Stuttgart for one month to see Saori and look for work on the ground. If nothing comes up, return to Houston and look for work in Houston.
2. Catch a ride up to Arcosanti out in Cordes Junction with the aim of taking over the arcology and re-iginite advanced urban and sustainable concepts. Use my contacts and network to get involvement from C-Lab, STOSS, and other architecture/landscape designers. Open a craft brewery to supplement bell income. First beer line-up: Soleri Birra Lager, Arcology Ale, Hoppie Hippie IPA, Bronze Bell Bitter, Rattlesnake Radler (1/2 lager, 1/2 lemonade).
3. Wrap up the stuff with Mason quickly and return to Houston to work exclusively on finding a job in Boston, Houston, or Germany. Fly to Germany as soon as a cheap ticket emerges, and spend 1 month in Germany visiting and looking for work.

Arcosanti is too far to bicycle so I'm left with options 1 and 3. The two questions are- get involved with the Phoenix rising project? and when to go to Germany? I am leaning more towards the involvement but I'm meeting with Tempest Sunday to get more clarification of how this whole thing will work.

Anyway, I decided to change the location to meet Mason- if he wants to become an architect, he'll have to get out of the library anyway. I caught the lightrail down to ASU and discovered a new James Turrel installation there with square enclosure made of metal mesh set into a garden. I sat there and read The Old Gringo for awhile and practiced my Germany on my tablet while waiting for Mason. When he arrived, we walked through the ISTB 2 building which is one of my favorite buildings on campus to get ideas about water and space and catwalks. Afterwards, caught a bus from ASU and mom and Larry came to pick me up from where it dropped me near the house.