Sometimes people can get out of their cars...

And then there's me.

If you know me well, you know that my experiences with cars has been...well, we'll call it "rocky." Let's review, for those of us who haven't heard the stories.

Car #1: Got smashed up and undriveable when a lady ran a flashing red light going 40 mph. She hit me, and then pushed my car into another guys'. He didn't have insurance. Sad day for him, and for my little Honda.

Car #2: My Dad's car. The engine burned out on Thanksgiving day, with my Grandpa and little brother in the back seat. I delayed Thanksgiving dinner 2 hours. Whoops.

Car #3: This is the most beautiful story ever. My little Dodge Omni was smoking. I determined not to drive it until I could get the problem checked out. It was Christmas vacation, and one of the ladies that had a newspaper route was going out of town to see her kids for the holiday. She couldn't find a substitute. I told her I absolutely couldn't, my car wasn't working well. She begged me and begged me and...well, it was Christmas!! What was I supposed to do? I said yes, rationalizing that I'd use the money to fix my car. I was driving the route, up one side of the street; then, as I came down the other side of the street, I parked the car to review the route list. I looked out the driver's side window and saw a little flame on the other side of the road. "That's weird," I thought, and got out of my car to look at it. As I bent over to blow it out, I thought "I wonder why I didn't see it when I drove up this side of the road." Then I turned and looked at my car. And the underside of it was glowing. I ran and grabbed my wallet and anything else that I could, then I crossed the street again to a nearby house. There was a brief moment when I considered grabbing their hose to put out my car on my own, but I decided that the hose probably wasn't long enough to reach my car. I ran up to the front door and knocked, cringing at the idea of waking up this family at 6am. A little girl in a soccer uniform answered the door. "Umm...is your Mom awake?" She nodded. "Could you get her for me please?" The little girl walked away, and a woman came to the door with a questioning look on her face. "Hi," I said, "Can-I-borrow-your-phone-my-car-is-on-fire." She grabbed her phone and rushed out of the house after me. Before she could dial 911, her neighbor, standing on his walkway in his pajamas, waved to us and said "Don't worry. I've got it." It was, we'll say, a learning experience.

Car #4: One word. Possessed. I inherited this car from my sister when I first came up to BYU. At the time, it was functioning perfectly well. As soon as I started driving it, it would randomly decide not to start. You know, just whenever it felt like it. It especially thought it was funny to not-start for a good while, and then when the tow truck would arrive, it would start just fine. That was it's favorite game. Eventually, small plastic pieces would start to fall onto my lap from somewhere inside the steering wheel whenever I would turn a corner; but the best was when it would randomly start honking on it's own. Oh, and there was the time that my siblings and I were returning from the beach. We were in the Taco Bell drive through when flames came up out of the parking brake region. No explanation there, either. Let's just say, it's probably in a much safer place now, settled in with all the rest of the demonic things that people toss out, like broken toasters and mismatched socks.

Car #5: Up to this point, you have to realize that I have become emotionally traumatized by all the car "experiences" that I've had. I decided to be extra careful and get my little car looked at just before I made the drive down with my Dad from Provo to San Diego, a month before I left on my mission. Everything was great. They changed the oil, I was good and ready to go. Yeah. The car gave up the ghost a mile south of Beaver, Utah. Good thing I have relatives that live in Beaver, huh? Have you ever had to cram two cars worth of stuff into one car? I had to decide then and there what stuff I needed for my mission, and what could be left behind in my Uncle and Aunt's garage, for my parents to pick up and put in our garage after they dropped me off at the MTC. It's actually an effective way to pack, kind of like those old shows where people run through the grocery store and grab all the groceries that they can fit into their carts in a certain amount of time.

Car #6: As could be expected, I've been nervous about cars since returning home from my mission. When my Dad suggested that I take his Prism my last year at BYU, because my schedule would be really hectic and I'd "need" it, I really hesitated. Needless to say, I've been a little overprotective of my car since then. It gets regular check ups and oil changes and tire rotations; and I'm pretty sure the guys at Goodyear laugh at me everytime I come in to get another electrical problem fixed. I've put a lot of effort into this little car. There are just two things that I haven't had the time, or been able to afford, to fix yet. They are replacing the container that the windshield wiper fluid goes in, and getting the door handles in the driver's side and passenger side doors fixed. You currently have to roll (I fixed it just for you, Darryl=]) the windows down and open the car door from the outside. Which brings me to the entire point of this blog post.

On Friday I reached out my window to open my car door when the front panel of the outer door handle came off in my hand.

I guess those door handles are made of two parts. The back part is the mechanical part that actually pulls the door open. The front panel of said door handle is not just for decoration, but functions as a place to put your fingers in order to pull the mechanical part up. I now do not have a place to put my fingers in order to open my car door.

I laughed for five minutes straight, ending my laughter with a rather vehement "Seriously?!?" Then I managed to pry the mechanical part up with my keys, and got out of my car.

So, in case you were wondering, I think the talk that most applied to this situation in todays session of General Conference was Elder Wirthlin's.

Come away, and love it. I embrace my car troubles. I laugh in the face of fire, electrical problems, and tires that explode on the side of the road. I've been through too many of them to even have it affect me any more.

(Sorry my blog posts are so long...but hey, when there's a story to tell...it's got to be done.=])