Yesterday my loving, patient husband taught me to drive his car, which meant teaching me to drive stick. i'll say it now, his car is a bitch. the clutch and gas pedal are really, really touchy. VERY. enough so that when people who are experienced with manual cars get in it, even with warning about the touchiness they still kill the car on the first try. however, i managed to get going after killing it only twice, and drove around the parking lot in first gear for awhile. apparently it's hard to drive it in first, so the fact that once i got going the car stayed running is good.

then we shifted a bit, did a little reverse (also a pain in the rear) and i started getting used to the car a little more. i did kill it again at least once, as expected. you always drive badly (at least for a minute or two) the first time you get into an unfamiliar car, and i was learning stick at the same time. actually, i wasn't entirely learning stick. i've driven tractors and lawnmowers, though most of the tractors i've driven don't give a crap if you clutch or not.

we're going to have to go out and do it again, since the parking lot and the snow in it didn't really make me comfortable with going above 2nd, and i know i could use more practice, but i can now drive it in an emergency if i have to. he says that if i can learn to drive this particular (touchy) car, i can drive anything. at least he admits it's hard to drive...