Friday, April 16, 2010

Meghan Day 5

TITLE: NICE THING #5 – The Beef Stew Incident

DATE: January 2010

EXPLANATION:
I work with a lot of older guys at my job. The bulk of them are Domestic Violence Unit deputies who don’t always have time to stop for a healthy lunch or even eat something that wasn’t prepared three days earlier and is long overdue on being thrown out. When Jilly is on nights, I have a tendency to make meals that will last us the week, and the one thing I’ve discovered I’m really good at making is Belgian Beer Beef Stew.

EVENT:
I packed an extra plastic container full of enough beef stew for two deputies and when the evening shift rolled in (the guys who basically work through dinner and well into the middle of the night), I handed them the plastic container full of stew and told them to have a good night.

REACTION:
They were so incredibly thankful. These are two guys I don’t often interact with because of their schedule at work so it was nice to do something for a couple of “strangers”. They were all smiles and the next day both of them came into work a few minutes early just so they could tell me how great the stew was and how appreciative they were of my thoughtfulness.

WOULD I DO IT AGAIN? Absolutely! Those guys do the ugly work of domestic violence and get very little thanks for it, both from the community and from other law enforcement officers. Beef stew isn’t a public pat on the back, but it’s still a small way of saying thanks for sticking your neck out every day.

COST: $0.00

EFFORT: Packing up the stew that I’d made the night before.

TIME: About 10 minutes – 5 minutes to pack it up in the morning and 5 minutes to explain the point of it when the guys got in that afternoon.

1 comment:

  1. I have to say, that is not the only thing you're good at making! You're too modest; I will gladly eat anything you cook/bake/grill/etc. :o)

    I love that you made them stew and that it was a total surprise to them. Glad they liked it!

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