Keeping in Touch
Keeping in touch has been a huge thing since Howie has been deployed. I try to talk to Howie every week. When he first left I was calling him from my cell phone, but that brought my cell phone bill to close to 400 hundred dollars. Each call was like 2.99 a minute. In addition to that At&T charges roaming charges to Howie’s phone anytime it is on, the charge for that is 1.99 a minute! So I had to get phone cards and Howie got a pay in advance type of phone in Kuwait. So that has been a better way for us to keep in touch, because my monthly phone card budget has been fifty dollars and he puts about sixty dollars on his phone so he is able to talk to me. But I think the amount of money I had to pay to AT&T is ridiculous. So for me I mainly just talk to Howie on the phone, but there are other ways of communication with the troops.
The troops have access to a computer lab, where they can go on the internet and send pictures or use Skype, however the lines for these places are pretty long. I think that Howie is being lazy and doesn’t want to stand in line so he’d rather do the cell phone thing. There are also phone that are like pay phones that the soldiers can use, but again the lines for these things are long. Of course you can always write a letter, but who does that anymore!
I think the way Howie and I do our communication is really good. It makes me feel good knowing I can call him anytime I want (and I do call him anytime I want regardless of the time difference, I know I’m mean) and as long as he is not on mission he will answer. It keeps us feeling close being so far away. The other really cool thing about talking anytime we want is that our kids can talk to him. Lately my daughter has been asking where daddy is and that she misses him so whenever she asks me about daddy I whip out my cell phone and get him on the phone so she can hear his voice.
