We used up his phone card

Adam and I talked for more than an hour Sunday, using up his entire $15 phone card. Oops. Good thing Target has phone cards on sale this week. He called at 2 a.m. from a call center. Apparently they will be on the night shift, so they are staying up to prepare. Go figure -- he works graveyard here, and he'll be working graveyard there.

He is bored, just waiting to head to Iraq. They are going to Iraq "soon" -- "I cannot tell you," he said when I asked when. Apparently it's some military secret. It's probably only the first of many to come.

His squad leader, Staff Sgt. Andrew Stocker, is already in Iraq, so Adam is the acting squad leader. He said it's not as cool as it sounds, because they are done training. So it's just a matter of keeping his guys in line.

Apparently the Internet in his room in Iraq will not be as useful as he thought, so Skype is probably out. Bummer. The network, as it is in Kuwait, is slow, so he can access his e-mail and Facebook and stuff like that, but something high-speed such as Skype is likely out of the question.

He gets slightly homesick, but that is more so when he is bored and has time to think and reminisce. Overall he's OK, he said.

He plans to pimp out his room when he gets to Iraq. His roommate will be Nate (I don't know his last name). At least they will have some entertainment.

I think this year is going to be OK. I miss him, yes. But we can do this. A year is a long time, and it isn't. I just hope he stays safe.

P.S. He taught me a really easy way to figure out what time it is there. Take the current time and minus 2, then change the a.m. to p.m. or vice versa. Voila!