So I took a trip to the desert this weekend, and didnt even think about it,
but I had a full unopened can of rootbeer in the front cupholder, well
sometime during the day it exploded at the top and shot rootbeer all over
the place.

We wiped it all off that we could see, and everything seemed to work just
fine.

But last night when leaving the college, I turned on the headlights to the
parking position and they were fine, then turned them to the headlamp
position and the headlamps would NOT come on, and the parking lights turned
off.

It seems if I turn the headlight switch to the parking lights, all is fine,
but if I turn them to the headlight position, then no headlights come on and
the parking lights turn off.

I then put the car in reverse and have no reverse lights.  Im guessing that
some of the rootbeer went into the gear selector lever area and Im guessing
that there must be a reverse switch in there that is all gummed up now, but
how would this affect the headlights?

The headlights worked the first night after the incident and even the second
night, until I shut off the car, then turned it back on, and no headlights.

Any clues how this relates to each other?

There wasnt a whole lot of soda on the dash (very little really, couple
drops here and there), and also very little on the front panel where the
stereo is, most of it, it seems went up to the roof headliner, and on the
seats, but I imagine quite a bit got into the shifter console.

Help is definately appreciated.