Agreed, spending US dollars is truly a royal pain in the ass.  If only you happened to have some bitcoins the process would have been so much easier.

I suggest opening a blockchain.info wallet (it is easy and should take you less than 5 minutes).

Then use BitInstant to convert your lousy US dollars into bitcoins.  Should take less than 10 minutes on their website and a quick trip to a local shop to deposit your cash.

Not difficult, complicated, or excessively time-consuming, and if you get a bit extra you'll have some nice convenient bitcoins for future purchases.