So we’ve gone back to our respective new lives this past week and I must say it kind of sucks except that we can now talk. By “talk” I mean as much as I can tap out in a 160 characters or less. Texting on my outdated cell phone has now taken over my life like the Beatles did on the Ed Sullivan Show. I must say it all feels down right tween like.

We have shifted from writing letters to sending a slew of text messages. I used to make fun of people that sent text messages all the time. I thought it was a replacement for real conversation and took all the emotion out of speaking. You could get more out of a voicemail. Well my position has changed. We have since sent over 500 text messages over the course of 7 days. I get all tingly when I get one at 4am. (I have it set to ring REALLY loud so it wakes me up.) It’s almost like he’s lying next to me whispering in my ear “good morning, I love you.”

My new found glories of text messaging have made me painfully aware that my phone is not adequate for this new part of my life. I have the “old school” style flip phone that you have to scroll through every letter to get one that you need. It can take me 5 minuets to send off a message. To my credit, I can now mostly type what I need without looking as long as it’s not to “weird” of a letter. I can even do it fairly effectively while driving.

This has now become my “norm” for conversation. It is really the only way that we can talk. He can’t call, because it’s very loud in the barracks all the time and he’s not allowed to be outside on the phone. Evidently its not becoming of a soldier to have a cell phone plastered to your head while you should be saluting someone who is going to yell at you not matter what you do. Occasionally I get an IM message from him when he can have his lap top out. That usually only lasts no more that 1 or 2 hours at night or until the signal goes dead. For some reason the base cant seem to get their WIFI act together. I guess it’s not a priority of the defense department.

As I mentioned earlier, I can get all tingly when these messages from space appear on my phone. Nothing beats getting to know what is going on there at the base. Sometimes because of the way the military is set up you can really feel out of the loop on what’s going on. Things change at the last minute and start and stop times mean nothing till they are over. These messages keep me posted and a part of his life. I guess the fear I had while we were separated by letter writing is would it still be important for us to talk everyday. I was worried that time would make us not need each other in the same way we did when we were together in person and that we would grow into two different circles rotating in opposite directions.

These little life lines of text messaging have made that fear for me disappear. I now know that I need to communicate with him everyday. While I was a little overzealous in the first few days of texting, I have found that a few well sent messages can make me feel better while getting the jist of the “going ons” of his life away from home. I learned that you can’t treat texting as an actual conversation. Short cuts have to be developed and you have to be concise and smart about your choice of topics and words.

I used to think that texting would ruin the English language and the need for real communication and writing. (No comments about this column please.) It’s funny then that it would become such an integral part of my life. I don’t think that I will make fun of people who text more than talk. Who knows maybe they are connecting with that one person who means everything to them and this is the only way they can.