I agree with your assessment of the potential awkwardness of phone calls to a point, but I find with my good friends (of which I *used* to think I had a lot!) we usually have something to talk about and if we don’t, there’s no problem hanging up–one of us just says, “Ok, well I better go now because I have to go do stuff!” and no one takes it the wrong way. I find the awkwardness comes more often with those relationships that are making the transition from acquaintances to friends, and in those cases yes, you do want to have more in-person interactions because that’s where you discover what the person is really like (and whether you want to keep them in your life).

I always try to keep my phone conversations relatively short and be aware of the other person’s vibes vis a vis hanging up, so that I don’t become one of those people who you don’t like to call because *every* phone call with them is an hour long. I think that as we email more and more, a phone call becomes more of a “special” thing, and people think that the calls have to be long because they are “special”.

Hope you’re feeling better!

Christina