I created an annotation family that I drop into the sheet that contains the linework I need. Then I just use 2 columns of text. One for the numbers/letters, and one for the note itself. It's not the best road compared to CAD workflows, but it works okay for now, until the fix the text editing feature...

If I need them on multiple sheets, I use a group...I wouldn't use a legend unless you have legend components you need shown or something, because legends can't be copied and pasted to original coordinates like detail groups can, and if you have 60 sheets with the same general notes on them, that can be a huge time saver, not to mention it makes it much easier to make sure you get the note block in the same location on each sheet.

Hope this helps.