my car had smoke coming from the center console and the airbag light was on

What is your question?

I'm hoping for an opinion before I take my car in to a repair shop tomorrow for an estimate tomorrow. Short back story, I've had my car for 9 years and it's got a transmission that slips all over the place, but has been that way for three years. Since that would be so expensive and there are other things wrong with it I'm not paying to fix it, I've just been driving it and doing minimal maintenence for as long as I can while I save up money for a new/used car. (and amazingly it hasn't gotten worse, I just avoid freeway driving when possible) I was driving home today, and after just a few minutes I smelled a horrible buring smell (unfortunately I don't know the difference between a fluid burning smell and an electrical smell) and the airbag light was on. Odd, i thought. So I pulled over, I opened the hood thinking the smell was in there, nothing. Got back in the car and realized there was a tiny amount of white smoke coming from the center console, where the e-brake is. This scared me a little so I sat still for a bit... but decided I'd have to drive it home at least. The smell continued the whole time I was driving, the airbag light stayed on. I'm worried it's electrical and isn't safe to drive to the repair shop. How would I know the difference? Any chance it could just be a leaky oil valve cover or something? I figure it I can get a repair under $500 and keep driving it for awhile while I continue to save money I will. Any opinions would be helpful! I unfortunately don't know much about cars either so I always have that stereotypical worry that I'll get ripped off because I'm a single woman at a repair shop... Thanks! Starla Cochran