Steve, I hear ya!
I am just two months in to playing myself. I work in Higher Education and have been paying particular attention to "how" to learn. You and I are following the same path.
I hope you stick to it. And I hope you stay with the forum community because that works like having classmates who help each other through.
My belief is that a motivated person can master (I am using that word loosely) basic skills in 90 days. I even set up a blog as a diary because I find I need to write stuff out to think it through.
Anyway, good to meet another pilgrim on the journey.
Derrick