Learning to Drive... Stick!

It finally happened! I drove stick!!! I'm on a bit of a crunch now that I have, oh, almost half my list left and 6 weeks left so I decided to be bold and just try to get it done. So, when the light bulb when on over Thanksgiving dinner I couldn't resist asking my awesome uncle to teach me how to drive stick on his summer car (a BMW z4). I asked a few times years ago and he was hesitant. But here's how it went down tonight...

Me: "Oooh, think Uncle Steve will teach me to drive stick on the beamer?"

Aunt Wendy: "Manda Lauren, there's no way, how many times have you asked him and he's said not on that car?"

Liz: "There's no way he's letting you drive that."

Me: "Uncle Steeeeve, heyyy, question... can you teach me stick on your car? I really need to learn ASAP. Don't you love me??"

Uncle Steve: (shockingly not immediately saying no). "I'm not a very good teacher."

Liz: "I'll teach her I'll teach her!"

Uncle Steve: "OK." (hands us keys)

So alas, shocked but in a hurry to beat sundown, I rocked down Heneson Garth and Greenspring Ave like Tony Stewart around the Miami Speedway. I did much better than I thought. I only stalled out twice and I felt more comfortable than the last time I tried, about 5 years ago, which was a bit disastrous. Pretty sure most of the credit goes to my awesome teacher and celeBFF Liz. Here's what she had to say about my driving:

"You did awesome. You barely stalled. Your transitions were almost seamless. You were an excellent stick driving grasshopper to the stick driving sensei"

So, here's a couple pix once I returned, a stick driving grasshopper! I'm very happy tonight. Now, just need the Ravens to pull out a win and life will be really good.

Rockin' the z4

We survived so I'm happy!