The Good Side Of Being In A Rut

We've taken all the kids to church pretty much every Sunday morning since Thing Two was three or so.  The first few months were a challenge...in retrospect, asking this kid (heck, any kid) to sit still and be quiet for an hour was asking a lot, but at that point his language processing issues hadn't been diagnosed yet or we probably would have held off.  We got into the habit of going directly to Dunkin' Donuts for a treat after services when the kids behaved well (bribe, reward, tomato, tomahto...whatever works); so for years now, we have been showing up at that store like clockwork at 10:45 on a Sunday morning.

Being the sort that believe in good customer service, the mostly-Indian crew that runs this store know that we are coming, know our usual order down to how I take my coffee, and have it bagged and rung up by the time Himself reaches the front of the line.  It actually becomes a problem if we ever want to change our order--we don't want to make them feel bad--but they are clearly trying to be helpful and proactive and this is a good thing.  Considering that I ordered the same pizza every Friday evening for years from our local pizzeria and got a blank look from the owner EVERY SINGLE TIME I went in to pick it up (the other end of the customer service spectrum!) I'll take the Dunkin' Donuts crew being slightly overzealous any day of the week.

Anyway, this summer's promotional item at our DD store was Oreo donuts: white-cream filled donuts with white frosting studded with Oreo bits.  As far as The Girl was concerned, heaven on earth.  She ordered one every week.

Last Sunday, we went in and discovered that the Oreo donuts had left the lineup in favor of the fall promotional items.  We joked with Jay, the cheerful thirtyish manager who greets us every week, that this was going to be a calamity for The Girl.

When we walked into DD this morning, Jay immediately handed her a small bag.  She opened it to find an Oreo donut.  There were still none on the shelves: he had taken the trouble to make a single donut of a kind they don't sell anymore especially for her.

Yes, it's good to take care of regular customers and all, but that was above and beyond.  It completely made her day, and ours.  Kudos to Jay for his thoughtfulness...you can bet we'll be staying in that rut.