Welcome from Southern California! Your new machine sounds great. I have a Viking Topaz and didn't realize the learning curve with the embroidery - I would understand when I was taking the training and then would get home.
Not too sure how new you are to embroidery but when I got my machine I knew nothing and a friend of mine worked with me so we could both learn. One shop had a huge selection of thread so I bought a couple of large already planned selections of thread instead of trying to buy them separately, and a variety of stablizers too.