Anyway, it was a beautiful Phoenix afternoon, lux has great coffee drinks, and I wanted to see the place one last time anyhow. Lux really is a hub for architects and designers. It was where I bumped into Claudio a few weeks ago. And then, there's my old professor Scott Murff. Apparently, he hangs around Lux so much and requests so many Americano refills, they named the menu item after him.
Mason is deaf, so when he talks, he usually signs as he speaks. We were talking about Germany, and I noticed he would make two signs for Germany. As he explained it, the first one is the one he was originally taught, and then because it was seen as insensitive, it was changed to the second, but he still catches himself automatically making the first sign.
In American sign language, the older sign for "Germany" is to cross your hands and wiggle your fingers, what Mason described as forming a Swastika. The updated formation of Germany, the more "politically correct" way to sign it, is via an extended index finger on your forehead to form the spike of the WWI Kaiser helmets.
Actually, one thing I'm curious about is how Germans deaf people make the sign for Germany. Originally, I thought for sure that sign language would be a much more international, standardized language: if you're trying to say "talking" for example, the sign is basically an open hand moving away from your mouth. Since the mode of communication is pictorial or gestural, it must be more universal.
As it turns out, sign language is more nation specific. For example, Mason is currently learning British Sign Language, which is entirely different from American. Even the way letters are formed by the hand to spell things out is different. It's like having to learn a different alphabet, just to be able to spell words in English.
Going back to Germany, I read somewhere that sign language has long been repressed and discouraged in Germany, and it's only been in the last decade that it has been acknowledged as a requirement for accessible communication and beginning to show up at governmental public meetings.
After Lux, I went to target and bought four TSA approved locks for the gun case. It turned out when I tired them, that they were too small, which is good, because I subsequently discovered they're also illegal to use on gun cases. Apparently, there are concerns that rogue TSA agents could use the TSA keys to access firearms and weapons which makes everyone uncomfortable given the fact that the TSA agents are the carnies of homeland security.
I decided ultimately to simply fly with the guns as checked baggage. While there are horror stories about flying with guns in states like NY, they are highly atypical, and I've done a lot of reading on the regulations. Apparently, you go straight to the check in, declare immediately you are checking firearms, fill out a declaration of the guns being unarmed, and then you open the case for the TSA to inspect. They can look but they can't touch, so if they feel like they need to see more, they need to call over a police officer to take a look at them. Then all the locks go back on, and away the case goes to be checked. I'm building extra time in the process since I have a feeling this may take awhile. I'm a little nervous. The TSA doesn't bother me, but I need to be expressly clear that these are my guns and I'm not taking them to be transferred or sold. If they ask, I'll tell them that I'm planning on going hunting in Texas with my dad. Probably they won't even ask why I'm taking them.
Anyway, I met Sal and his fiancee Staci for drinks and a light supper at St. Francis. Sal brought me a parting gift of a book about walkable cities. It was a lovely evening of chatting over drinks and pork verde and cornbread, in the open air restaurant. (Apparently the remodel was by none other than Wendell Burnette, a local architect who also guest taught studio at Wash U one year.) I will miss the dry breezy nights of Phoenix.
Today was a whirlwind of packing. I came back to Phoenix with a duffel bag of clothes, but I've bought a few things and so instead of forking out the $100 for a checked bag, I mailed off a box this morning via USPS. It was $40 and it will get to Houston the day after I arrive. Picked up some heftier padlocks for the gun case at Kmart.
I fixed the wine rack since mom wasn't happy with the bottom piece being a different color than the rest, which was annoying in the amount of preparatory work I had to do last night (cutting, sanding, staining), but an easy fit this morning.
Got takeout from Los Dos Molinos for dinner, probably the last AZ influence New Mexican style cooking I'll have in awhile, and we watched tropic thunder followed by the late night showing of Project Runway.
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