verbingnouns

For All the Procrastinators, of Whom I Am Chief

I don't know that it is with me and telephones: if someone calls me, I will talk and talk (and enjoy it), but if I need to call someone, you can forget about it. I doesn't matter if it's to RSVP for a party, make an appointment, catch up with an old friend I haven't talked to in years or ask a quick question of someone I see everyday, I hate making phone calls.
I used to claim to be unable to use a phone. Since I didn't talk on the phone often, I didn't know how to make my conversation go smoothly. I've tried to make myself practice over the years so I'm not as bad as I once was: once I get through the initial, "this is Christin, is so-and-so there" bit, it's not so bad, but the first part is the killer. I'm not very good at small talk, so if a person other than the one I need to speak with answers the phone and I have to small talk twice, it throws off my groove.
Now that I have to make a lot of phone calls for work, my phone skills are improving...in fact, to the unknowing recipient of my phonecall, I probably seem like any one else: perfectly capable of using a phone. I really like it when other people call me and sometimes, I even get the urge to call a friend. But if I have to make a call, I want it to be on my terms: I don't like the pressure of calling someone out of a sense of duty.
All that being said, I talked to a couple of old college friends last night: one that I talk to regularly and the other that I haven't talked to in a long time, and it was so nice to catch up with them both. I don't want to loose contact with all those people I used to be really close to, but I am so bad at intending to call people and never quite getting around to it. There are a couple of particular friends who have the same phonecall-procrastination problem I have, so I just go for months or years without talking to them. I need to put some kind of system in place that will motivate me to use my phone...but of course, I'm not accountable to anyone except the people who I need to call and they're obviously not calling me either. I guess I just need to be a better person and stop procrastinating so much and just do it...that would solve a lot of problems.