Van troubles

So, everyday at work I drive the van over to the hospital to pick up the medications for the patients. As I was getting out of the van today my jacket sleeve caught on the door of the car. I managed to pull myself free and then swung the door shut. It made a clang noise and bounced open, much to my surprise. I then checked for the seatbelt and tried again when I noted no obstruction. Still it did not shut. I then set my bag of drugs and the keys down on the driver’s seat and inspected the door more closely. (I apologize to car people for not using the correct terms and “thing” a lot in the very near future, but here goes). So, I noticed a black round thing in the door and it coincides with a little bar on the door frame. It was not open to let the bar in, so I deducted that the black thing was my problem. Since I now discovered what my problem was it was time to fix it. I tried to pull it down, but it wouldn’t budge, so I pushed up…only to have it go up farther and not come back. I then tried to unlock and lock the door desperately hoping that it would automatically pop down and save me. Of course it didn’t. Then I thought I should check the passenger door to confirm my suspicions that the black thing should have the opening facing out. I opened the door and was pleased to see that I was correct. Unfortunately though I decided to toy with that side. Bad idea…I now had the same exact problems on both sides. Neither door would shut.

Okay, so there went my plan to head up to the cafeteria for a Klondike bar or something similar (I am pregnant) since now I was planning on going to the pharmacy as quickly as possible and back to my building so I can find someone to help me tinker or perhaps just call for a service man…being that it was 4 PM I doubted we’d get anyone out today. So, I got back into the open van and took a long strap that happened to be in there and tied it around the passenger side and my driver’s side door and held them together. The doors only tried to open twice. So, I parked the van and decided to try one more time to fix both doors now…besides, my fingers were already black.
This time, I don’t know why, I happened to see a little silver area I could possibly try to push in to release the black thing. I took the key and pushed it up and…success! I just had to maneuver it a bit and was able to get the job done. I was scared it would revert right back, but so far so good. With my ego boosted I went to the passenger side and repeated the task. I am so pleased with myself that I did not have to call for service or have a co-worker come to my aid, but now I want my ice cream