No, really.
So I'm in a larger city about an hour away for a job interview. I pulled into some convenience store on my way out of town to grab a Dr. Pepper for the drive (hi I'm an addict). I start my car, go to throw it into reverse, and. . it won't throw. My gearshift was stuck. I restart the car, check the emergency brake, wiggle the steering wheel - still nothing.
So I'm like DAMMIT and some samaritan appears out of nowhere. He tries to yank the shift out of park (as if perhaps I was simply too feeble to do it). No luck. He offers me a ride, I tell him to piss off and call my best friend's uncle, who is a grease monkey. He starts trying to tell me to look for some "button" on the base of the gearshift or under the dashboard that will override the lock on the somethingorother and allow me to move my car. Mind you, he's already drunk at 3pm, so I thank him and get off the phone to start rooting around for this button.
Another random passerby comes up and says he has tools in his jeep, so he'll help me pop the console out so we can look at the gearshift. Turns out he's a flight mechanic at the local Bell Helicopter plant. I'm like YAY he fixes ospreys he can probably find this override switch. I r saved.
Ten minutes later, his rambling is starting to bore me and no luck. So I start to look, myself. Being a mother, I know how to look for things. You go to the place it could be and touch/move EVERYTHING until you find it.
I touch some little white tab (not a fucking button), it slips out of place, and I can't slip it back. Aha! I'm like "Hey, I might have found it." Which he, of course, ignores. So I just put the car in reverse and laughed when he had to jump and hit the brake.
Little toyota four doors are apparently more mystifying than complex military machines.
