I completely understand where you are coming from. I too was ready to cry the
other day just thinking about CSS. My advice (and advice I got from others on
this forum) is to use tables in the beginning for your layout and then use CSS
to style the tables. I found this very useful because it allowed me to layout
my page, without feeling like I needed to know everything about CSS, yet I
could use my beginner knowledge of CSS to style the table cells. As much as
people (the hard-core users) say to not use tables I find it a great resource
if you are just starting out like I am. I tried to learn CSS and build a site
relying on it entirely and I was ready to quit. Tables are not taboo -
especially if you are building a smaller site and nothing too complex.

Good luck. This forum really helped me so keep on posting!