Thank you all for your kind help.
@Scungio, my needs are simple, I just want to make t-shirts and simple web graphics. Who knows, maybe with the right tool I can get to be a pro :) You're right about Illustrator, I have CS5 but I hardly use it because It's not user/ newbie friendly. I love Inkscape and the way It handles layers but for my needs right now it's just not working out.
@R C-R, I did check the surfers sample, nice organization! My version of AD doesn't have a font UI size option! (1.5.3.69, trial, windows) I hope the devs can fix this whole issue soon, maybe a small, med, large font/icon option? I enclosed (I hope) a screenshot of the moth-eaten UI fonts vs Inkscape's. Not a huge deal but, first impressions.
@MEB, thank you for the welcome and the info!
So, workarounds:
Change the Layers tab to Effects and ignore the thousand layers
Learn to be organized (I bounded New Layer to Shift-A. Saves you time)
Thanks again to all! Expect more noob questions. :)