Dropping the tranny....what??

So, for the first time since I've had my car (4.5 yrs) it needs some major mechanical work done...and yes, I know that dropping a transmission is spendy, but alas, it must be done. I took my car in to the husband of a dear friend from college. He and his family shop have been so good to me thus far. They are also going to try to turn it around in one day!! Keep your fingers crossed for me. It is so weird to not have a car. When I dropped it off today I asked to see the transmission that would be blessing the rest of the engine guts shortly (lightly used--50,000 miles, versus maybe 150,000 on the current one...). I thought of taking a picture...then I thought again and decided I might look like too much of a dork, so I settled with looking up a picture of a similar one online...enjoy...I sure hope to once I get the car back...
...hopefully I won't be able to or have to see it in this form again, but this here is the guts of my car being able to go, and go, and go, and not pop out of 5th gear on the freeway...which by the way threw me for a loop the first time. Thankfully a friend who knows manuals snapped me out of my "stupid, I don't know what's happening" mode so we could keep going. Since then it has been heart racing angst if I needed to get on the freeway just waiting for it to test my limits.

When I called the shop to find out how I would need to pay them I was told that infamous... "by the way....we also might need to replace your clutch while we are in there." GREAT! Anywho, hopefully by the weekend I will be relearning to drive my car as it will drive completely differently with a new transmission and even more differently with new tranny and clutch.

Here is the clutch...I just knew you would want to know what it looked like too! Admit it. Enjoy!