Maybe write letters? I know that when I moved from Seattle to the Tri-cities (other side of the state, four hours away) I left two of my best friends behind, Heather and Jacob. Now I'm in Alaska, and I've been pen-pals with Heather for YEARS now, and I plan on getting back in touch with Jacob mid-november (I feel very out-of-bookish about the whole thing.). The thing about letters is that it is a very good form of communication. It's nice to see familiar handwriting on a peice of paper, not your average fonts on a screen (No matter how attached I am to Times New Roman, Heather's handwriting is always fun to see). It might take a day or two for each letter, but there's this great sense of anticipation and then when you finally get the letter it just makes you so happy. Letters are more personal than the computer, and when you're reading a letter you don't really feel like you should be looking at them, because it's diferent than talking. You could also keep in touch with your mom better, since she doesn't have a computer. Then exchanging pictures is oh-so-much fun, because then you have something solid and current that will always be there when you feel bad. The only problem is keeping the stream of letters going, and the way to fix that is to, right when you get the letter, write back and stick it in the mailbox IMMEDIATELY, lol. It's not the same as seeing your family, but it's really personal and fun. Not like IMing, which takes all the fun out of it, I think...

Oh look, another essay, lol.