I assume when you're saying " When I call her from my phone,..." you mean a standard voice-only phone. In such case using an interpreter is the only option. As for you getting/using a VP to talk via sign to your friend, I'm curious about your difficulties. Have you had trouble getting a VP...
I've been following the development of ASLU (lifeprint.com) for over 5 years. Dr. Bill Vicars has been doing a pretty good job from what I can tell. I haven't found a better free site for learning ASL yet. Even so, I keep searching for more sources. --patrick