memorized those questions and when the phone starts to ring I already have 100 questions to make I think you may have answered your own prompt, or gotten close to it, when you mentioned calling your relatives. Do you have any that might like to hear from you? Personally, i prefer meeting with friends in person and mostly using the phone to set up meetings, or to talk about pressing matters that need resolving. If it's something important to me, i will ask if they have a few minutes to talk before i launch into the discussion. But with family, I've had, for example, a grandmother and a great-aunt, both of whom enjoy talking on the phone, and that has been a real blessing for them, to hear from me, and for me, knowing I am staying connected with my relatives. Actually, now that I think about it, I do call my parents to talk on the phone, and they love the chats. I usually just ask general questions, like "What's new?" "What are you up to?" or others like Amaro mentioned, making sure i listen to the replies, and often in the reply, people will say other interesting things, "hooks" that i can use to ask other questions or to relate personal stories, after they are done speaking. If they mentioned they just got back from vacation, you can ask, "Where did you go on vacation?" then "What were some highlights?" I try not to interrupt, one thing that