The battle to tame the beast has begun.

Three years after my first attempt at learning to drive stick, I'm at it again. Since I won't be bringing my car to San Francisco and Ben's is manual, I have to learn this time. So, last night found me, mostly successfully, zooming around an IKEA parking lot (at breakneck speeds of up to 30 mph!). The security guards were ... intrigued. At one point, I pulled into a psuedo parking spot and waited for a man to come out of a nearby building because I was totally afraid of stalling in front of anyone. He asked if I was waiting for someone inside the building. "I'm learning to drive," I said. Needless to say, he sort he rolled his eyes and quickly walked away as Ben tried to save face by shouting, "Stick!"