Vhayne, you'll get lots of good advice here. Get over the fear of being a noob. EVERYONE that flies R/C planes was one at one time or another, even the ones who have been doing it for 50+ years. Most of us remember this and welcome new people.

Many who teach actually suggest that new people spend time with an instructor BEFORE you use a simulator. The reason is so you can learn good habits from the instructor and then use the simulator to reinforce them. If you learn everything on your own and then go to a field, you may have developed some bad habits these can be hard to correct. Besides, you live in NC, there's no reason to hibernate, flying is a year round sport around here. I'm planning to be at the field Sat and Sunday.

I'd suggest following Rog's advice about buying a decent radio set to begin with. This radio will be much more useful than the ones that come with the electric RTF planes. And assembling something like the GWS Pico or Slow Stick is actually pretty simple.