Things I Wish We All Would Stop Doing (Vol. 1)

-If you bring an item up to the register and it won't scan or doesn't have a price tag on it, please don't say, "Oh, it must be free." Now, I admit I'm as guilty of this as the next guy because sometimes it just comes out without thinking. However, I'm working on it and I want the rest of you to as well. I know it was funny the first time, but imagine being that poor salesperson - they must have heard various people say that 10,000 times that day. We're clever people, we can come up with a second joke for that situation.

-It drives me crazy whenever the phone rings and the person on the other end of the line responds to my 'Hello' with "Who's This?" It never fails to start a conversation off on the wrong foot, because instantly I'm annoyed with the person on the other end of the line. I feel as the person being called I am under no obligation to be the first party to identify myself. In fact, since you dialed the number you should know who is on the other end of the line. You're interrupting whatever I was just doing, so why don't you tell me who you are?

-I'm always slightly weirded out by couples who insist on sitting on one side of the table when they are the only people in the booth. Sure, that's cute when you are in high school and it's your first boyfriend/girlfriend, but after the age of 18 it just looks odd. If you want to hold hands or something you can do it on the table. Are you afraid your parents are going to come in and find you holding hands with a boy on a school night so you're trying to keep it on the down-low? You're married, they can't ground you anymore.

-There is an election going on this week and thus I've been getting a ton of political cold-calls with an automated message telling me to vote for whoever. Have these worked in the last 25 years? In fact, I contend most of the time they have the opposite effect and make me want to vote for that particular candidate less than I did 45 seconds ago. Also, did you know that political campaigns and charities are exempt from the National Do-Not-Call List? I find this ironic since they are the main abusers of the restrictions most telemarketers work under.