i'm starting a petition...

to cure the world of the holiday mass text epidemic! You know you've been affected. You get a text wishing you well on some random holiday but the number is not in your address book. This strange phenomenon usually occurs on Christmas morning, New Years Eve, and Thanksgiving... however some mass texters even insist on wishing their entire phoneaddressbook a Happy4th, Happy Easter, Happy Martin Luther King Day!!! It's not the text itself that bothers me. I love getting texts from friends and family. It's when it's not a number that I have in my phone and don't recognize. The average person wouldn't be bothered by these texts, would probably shrug and move on. But if you know me, then you know I am a law and order loving, journalistic mindset, nosy as all get out, tell me now only child. So each holiday I spend about an hour or two racking my mind over the mysterious series of #s that text me. My personal favorite is the thanksgiving mass text: "i'm so thankful for you!" I've gotten many of these from numbers that I don't think I've ever seen before. Really? I think. You're THANKFUL for me?! When the last time you saw me punk?! Call me , or better yet come SEE me if you're so thankful!" Now, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking I give my number out when I initially meet people, maybe at bars or benefits. But no, I don't. I'm sure the explanation is this simple: I have had 43892 phones in the past decade. So I've had to start over with my numbers many a time. But I haven't started over in the past year, so the grace period is over. I should no longer be getting random numbers. Every friend's number should be back in my phone.

I will admit that I am a softie for one category of mass texting....the birthday text. My birthday is a sacred day in my mind, one that requires preparation weeks before and a winding down period weeks after. If some stranger or frenemy or long lost amigo(a) wants to take the time to send me a lil Happy Bday greeting, then bring them on. The more that recognize my birthday as a holiday(as it should be), the merrier.

Hi!!...do you take checks?

Those 5 words have been the source of laughter, cringing, & astonishment from my friends over the years.

Let me introduce myself. My name is Ashley and I'm a check-writing-aholic. I love to write checks. Not just for bills. But in restaurants, boutiques, to people, organizations, etc etc etc. Yes, I know what a debit card is. No, I don't want one. I love getting out my leather check cover with a lil horse embossed on the lower left corner and saying "do you have a pen i can borrow" and checking today's date and asking "do you need to see my license?" It makes me happy to write checks. I don't know why. It just does. I know I am l iving in the stone age. I know it is old-fashioned.

One of my friends suggested, half joking half serious, that I even blog about my check fetish. You thought it might be worthwhile to pass on the info that's stored file cabinet in my brain labeled "the nice businesses that will take checks." So below is an abbreviated list of places in my town that I have discovered, over many years of pushing and prodding, will gladly take personal checks:

Rileys Bakery

Big Lots

T.J. Maxx

Werner Lowe

The Chanel makeup counter at Green Hills mall in Nashville

**Please contact me for the complete list :)