I live in the chicago area and plan on moving to phoenix.
Even though latin is dead it could be a usefull tool. a lot of medical and law terminology has roots in latin. For example medical anatomy is just latin words describing body parts: cardiac=heart celiac=belly
also knowing latin number prefixes would help figure out words in the verbal portion of the SAT college entrance exam. for example tri=3
I went off on a tangent. Anyways, learning sign could be usefull in other ways besides communicating with people. you never know.
Ahh, maybe I would get to met you one day. I am living just outside Detroit and I have been meaning to move to Phoenix, too. I got tired of snow.
More power to you for wanting to learn sign language!