So, you've already talked to each other either through chat/IM/PM/email etc... for a good amount of time, and now you've decided to take it to the next step and have exchanged SPAM/phone numbers.

You set up plans, call each other, phone beeps, and the call comes through, AND...

what do you say?

I mean, you know each other well enough to have a good conversation by this point, and once that initial 'awkwardness' blows away, you're gonne be very involved in the talk, but... That's the thing, why have that initial awkwardness? Why not have a smooth transition into an engaging talk?

You can't quite go with what you'd do on a cold approach, and likewise, the kind of hello you'd do on a date isn't quite the right thing, plus, SPAM has the problem in a sense of having a webcam.

I ask cause I notice this whenever I SPAM some friends I haven't seen in a long time, or something, it's really... 'awkward' for a bit (especially if the call is 'choppy' and hard to hear). Whenever I talk to my brother, its more fluid, cause I'll just ask, 'what are you doing right now' or something similar, but with friends, you ask 'so, how you been' or 'what you been up to' and it seems people have a hard time telling you something (I'd assume cause they feel whatever they;d been doing isn't really worth mentioning), thus, I'd like to avoid this with girls (I normally don't call, just text, but having a good graps on this seems important too).

Any ideas fellas?

I'm more than anything looking for a good frame of mind rather than canned openers, but I guess those work too.