Next time I'm going to write out talking points and do some trills to loosen up before dialing

Does not have an app that automatically mutes the mic when you start to sound stupid.

I'm pretty much over my talking-on-the-phone-to-strangers anxiety (now, at the age of 30—although heaven forbid I have to cancel something via telephone), but I just found myself about 15 seconds into leaving a voicemail and just completely fumbled it. I was prepared to talk to a person, where there's some back and forth and I'm not carrying the conversation on my own.

Instead: wild, verbal flailing.

Is it weirder:

1) to just stagger my way through to some sort of cobbled together end? Like, "Anyway, my next pap smear isn't until February, so just give me a call back about that retaining wall for our yard whenever you can."

Or

2) make the rewinding-a-cassette-tape noise and start again from the beginning?

Or

3) Stop, and say, "I feel like I'm veering off track here. What I really meant to say was, Hi my name is Erin and I'm inquiring about your carpentry services. Please give me a call at your first opportunity."

Or

4) hang up mid-sentence, call again, and use an alternate voice to leave a more appropriate message?

Perhaps the simple fact that I wrote this list with these options gives you some insight into how bad I am on the phone.

Edited to add: I just got a call back from the first contractor I left a message for today—the message that wasn't a total gaffe—and it was the guy's wife calling to tell me he had a heart attack and died two weeks ago. So. I'm hanging up the telephone now, literally and metaphorically.