Tara's random fears relieved

This is a post dedicated to those who know me best, and who realize this is a quintissential Tara "moment."

One of my re-occuring nightmares is that I would be driving along in the middle of nowhere, have my car break down/get stuck. The only way out would be to drive a stick shift car, and I wouldn't know how, and I would end up starving/eaten by cougars... I don't know. It was irrational, I knew it and it still freaked me out.

So last year when I got a car I got one with a stick shift si I could learn. Now, I didn't drive manual - I had to test drive the automatics. Generously (some might say death wish... ) my Dad, my uncle, and various friends taught me how to drive on the car (for future reference, try to do this not on a new car) . Famously, I was able to drive the car off the lot, in front of all the salesmen who knew I couldn't drive stick without incident, but I think I might have taken a few years off my father's life attempting to drive it home down Georgia steet through downtown Vancouver in a Friday night.

Well - offcially, I have survived my nightmare! (you knew this story was going somewhere, right?) Now, it wasn't in a desert, but an island marooned in the middle of the Pacific on a Sunday when everyone was at church counts.

Dad had to get to the ATM (about 8km away in town) sooo... he and I rented the only car available on Aitutaki - a red convertable Mazda Miata manual transmission car (seriously!). Dad and I took turns attempting to shift smoothly with the gear box on the wong side, the pedals in the same place and remembering to stay on the other side of the road without hitting the windsheild wipers instead of the turn signal. I tell you - hours of Sunday morning fun! (well, minutes maybe - the Island wasn't that big)

I will work on developing another neurotic fear to conquer... e-mail suggestions :-)