Come on feel the Illinoise

Hey, there, Guitar Noise people. I live in Illinois. I've been hanging out reading stuff on this site for several weeks now, and I've been very impressed with the content. I'm 36 and just bought my acoustic guitar last July. I restrung it myself and proceeded to read about guitar and practice obsessively for about six weeks. Then, because I was dealing with some other life stuff, I put it down and literally didn't touch it until late February of this year, at which point I began to read and practice again. I've been taking lessons for several weeks. It's slow going, and at times I feel I'm making no progress whatsoever, but then there will be a moment when something will click, and that will motivate me to keep going. I'm trying to make up for lost time--for all of the years when I could have been playing but wasn't. This isn't my first guitar. I bought one from a friend when I was in my early 20s, but I never learned to so much as tune it properly, so it just sat unused. Part of the reason for that was that I was convinced I couldn't sing, so why bother trying to learn guitar if I couldn't sing along with it? That was my faulty reasoning, anyway. I'm still pretty self-conscious about my voice, but I've gotten to the point where I don't care as much. I like to sing, and I can only get better at it.
My musical tastes are very eclectic (anything from country to opera). I never met a style or genre of music I didn't get something out of, and I want to learn everything. My favorite music tends to be singer-songwriter, lyrically driven music. Except Mozart. Hands down, Mozart is the best composer who ever lived, and although I won't be playing or singing any operas anytime soon, it's probably my all-time favorite music. Other than that, Willie Nelson, Michelle Shocked, Conor Oberst/Bright Eyes, Badly Drawn Boy, Emmylou Harris, Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Elvis Costello, Johnny Cash, Sufjan Stevens (hence the title of this post), Rufus Wainwright, Peter Gabriel, Randy Newman, Leonard Cohen are just a few of the artists I've been obsessed with, off and on, at some point in my life. I'm sure I'm forgetting some people, and will give myself a dope slap when I remember someone else. :D I also love the movie A Mighty Wind for its affectionate spoof of the folk scene--and for its reminder that it's good not to take yourself too seriously.
Ultimately I want to write and perform my own music, but that's a long way off. Until then, I look forward to learning and playing as much as possible.
Thanks to everyone for participating and making this such a great forum.