Is this a 3d stick?

[gr8hunter1 at comcast.net (Jacob Hawes)]

We finely get to drive my rocco home. It has been at my grandma's house 
about 25 miles south of us waiting for the tranny swap/starter 
rebuild/maintenance required for us to drive it home. Taking it out for 
a test drive, we (my dad since I've never driven stick) put sit in 
reverse to get out of the drive way then into first (this is 
semi-important later). This is a very rural area so there ins't that 
much traffic but the traffic there speeds quite a bit. My dad pulls off 
the road into a field entrance for me to try and drive (on the road, not 
the field). I move the stick around to make sure its in first. Every 
time I try to go it dies. We later figured out that you have to push the 
stick in to get to first. So the topology is three layered. reverse is 
on the far top right on bottom. First and second are just "above" that. 
And 3rd, 4th and 5th are all on top. Is this normal? I thought that 
reverse was pushed in and far top right (like it is) and 1st through 5th 
are all just above that.
The car has an FO transmission.

-- 
Cars:

	'78 lincoln mark V "QE2" nearly abandoned work in progress
	'80 scirocco mk1 Not entirely sure what to name it.
	'92 tempo "the ford" soon to be replaced by rocco as DD
Khukuri:
	18" Himalayan Imports Kobra "pillow knife"