Bryan, Just take the Welding I class to get started. You will pick it up right away. Like someone else stated, you will be running beads through the whole class, using lots of materials funded by my tax dollars
Once you get the whole 'stick welding' thing down, MIG will be simple. Then move on to TIG.
Grab some scrap steel of various thickness and bring it over. Also, I will be fabricating lots of crap for the '47 Dodge truck in the next few weeks, so there will be lots of welding going on there. I might go buy an Argon cylinder for the TIG and get that working so I can play around with that for a bit.