One thing you could do is use skype to text your friend in cali, its efective and cheap, somthing like 20c a txt...The reply will be delived to your phone if you confirm your number with skype(which is an easy thing to do)

www.skype.com d/l the software fill it up with 10$ and off you go...you can also make voip calls to the states for like 2c a min, its great...i use it to talk to my sis in Canada