Ongoing Vid Misadventures...

So, after researching open source and trail-versions of software, I have come to the following conclusions:

1)Buy Macs not Windows-based PCs. 
-There is much more video-editing software available for macs, and people do not seem to have that much trouble with them over all.

2)AVS Video Editor
-It looks a lot like Sony Vegas, and it is free (from what I can tell). However, if it not very user friendly. It's my best option at the moment, but I can foresee it taking me twice as long to make the vid than it would in Windows Movie Maker.

3)VLC-Video Editor
-I love the VLC player, but the video editor is only in its early stages, and does not have the functionality required to make high quality videos. Also, the program hung soon after I opened it.

4)Sony Vegas Movie Studio
-I downloaded a trial version of this. It is NOT as user friendly as WMM. It was confusing and made me want to cry...and I did not like it. I am glad that I downloaded the free trial and realized that the very oppressive quality of the program was a turn off, and I don't ever want to own it.

5)Windows Movie Maker
-Is actually the most user/newbie friendly of all the video editors. It's easy to use and figure out. I REALLY WISH I COULD USE IT.

So, here are my options as I see them:
1)Try again with WMM. My brother-in-law (who happens to work for Microsoft) suggested that I try only using .wmvs in the editor. I'm currently awaiting an answer from him about whether that will effect quality...but, I COULD try to that, and see if WMM still hangs when it tries to open saved files.
2)Search the internet and see if there is some fix out there somewhere. This is actually my least favourite option, because it there's one thing that I hate doing - it's searching the internet for solutions to problems. On the other hand, my mother is exceptionally good at it, so I COULD ask her if she could help me out. That being said, my mother is an extremely busy person and I'm supposed to be an adult who can solve my own damn problems.
3)Try to make the video all in one sitting. This would require me having a day where I have absolutely nothing to do and I go nowhere...ironically, today is one of those days, but it's already half over. So, I'd have to wait for another one. 
4)Give up. 

I guess a 5th option would be to dictate exactly what I want to someone who CAN make videos...but that would require a weird video-partnership, and I'm kind of a control freak.

Ok, now I'll seriously stop talking about this. It's just really frustrating.