The Light Is Out and She's Freaking Out

I believe we all have things that make us unique, some are good and some are bad. If we are willing to admit it, I think we all have weird fears or anxieties. I know people who are afraid of spiders, the number 13, elevators, etc. I also know people who aren't necessarily afraid of certain things, but get serious anxiety over them. I get anxious about many things, but one of those things is cars. Now let me clarify, I don't get anxious about driving my car, unless it's snowy or icy in which case I'd like to just win the loterry and hire someone to drive me around all winter. Of course since I don't actually play the lottery, that's not likely to happen. And well, truth be told in many instances I'd rather be the passenger than the driver so I can watch the scenery (okay okay and in some instances, like coming home late on a Friday night, watching the scenery is really napping). But I'm talking about any time something goes wrong or seems wrong with my car. I can't deal. I don't go completley nervous break-down, but I stress. I don't speak car. I don't know what anything is (remember my axle seal blog)? I can drive the car and that's about the end of my car knowledge and like I said when the roads are bad, I can't even say I have that going for me. Any time something is wrong, I panic, first how am I going to get anywhere (b/c I'm convinced it'll take ages to fix and I won't be able to get to work) and second how much is this going to cost? This is partially due to a previous experience with a disfunctional transmission (my transmission died on my way home from work last Dec. 23rd--I only remember the exact date b/c it was supposed to be the start of my Christmas vacation, no warning, nothing, I just went to turn on to my street and my car wouldn't move. I thought I'd accidentally hit the e-break or something, but no, it was the transmission, thankfully three nice policemen were able to push me to the side of the road, though they probably thought I was a freak b/c I was all OMG, my car doesn't work, it's freaking me out, blah blah blah, you get the point). The car wasn't even five years old and had under 60,000 miles on it so clearly, the transmission shouldn't have died and had it been a newer model, it would have been under warranty still, but it wasn't so two weeks and over a month's pay later, I had a functional car again, but I was afraid to go anywhere for months in case it just died again. I had to get some other things fixed throughout the year (tires, alignment, axel seal, blinker light, etc) and each time I got stressed, yes, even the blinker bothered me b/c I feared I'd get pulled over since the only time I was ever pulled over in my life was when one of my rear blinker lights was out. (Thank goodness the police officer was nice and I managed not to turn into my usual spazz self.) Anyway, having survived all this stuff, you think I'd be able to handle a head light problem. But NO! The other night a few of us were going to dinner two towns away. Three of us met at my place and we were going to take my car until my friend Jill noticed my head light was out. So she offered to drive and I spent the whole ride to dinner worrying. It was a Friday and my mechanic wasn't open on Saturday and I knew I might have to drive after dark on Saturday. I didn't want to get pulled over. I didn't want to take it to the dealership b/c goodness only knows how much they'd charge since they make a million dollars an hour so someone suggested Pepboys since it was so close to my home and they're open on Saturday. I made someone go with me b/c as we know I'm a freak when it comes to cars. I walked in and had no idea where to go. I tried one register, but that was wrong so someone directed me where to go and do you think I could just get the headlight? No, he asked me all these ?'s about my car and I was like uh...I have no idea how many cylinders my car is. (Insert me turning bright red and getting all nervous.) Is it in the owner's manual? B/c I missed it. Thankfully, the guy ringing me up just made some guesses. I was able to tell him how many miles were on my car--that was a question I understood. :) And $40 and a half hour later I had a headlight. Seriously people, $22 for a lightbulb? And $15 to install it? And what is this $2.95 service fee about? Maybe it's an extra fee for dealing with idiots like me. But honestly, who gets so stressed about a headlight? You'd think since I handled a non-functional transmission I'd be cool with a head light issue, but NO, I had to stress over that. Why can't I be normal?