Looking at telescopes

Hey all.

I'm at the point in my life where I just buy all the crap I wanted as a kid. I've wanted a telescope since I was a child. I've never even looked through one, but I know more than ever that I need one.

I want to know if there are any telescope users here that I could ask a couple of (hopefully) basic questions to, as I'm about to part with my hard earned cash and I don't want to make an uninformed decision. BTW, I mean one for gazing at the skies, not one for watching the neighbour changing

Thanks.