OP, give it some more time. You're on your way by asking questions and getting answers.

Personally, it took me about month of weekends to feel confident enough to convert some USD to BTC. For new users, I think the wallet and security around it is one of the more intimidating sides of Bitcoin. Just check out the stickied threads in this forum for some peace of mind.

To think that I almost got into Bitcoin when they were $8 bucks each makes me want to slap my past self!

Lethos, you are dead on about it being easier than PayPal! With PP's increase in fraud protection (good), it's a pain in the ass to get a full featured account going (bad)!