Hi,
"Can someone my speed handle UNIX?" well that is up to you if you can handle it. I'm sure you asked the same question when you first used Windows or any other O/S. They are just a matter of learning and knowing how it works. 4 months ago I hardly touched a Linux/Unix box. Now they are the main computers that I use at work, only reason I use windows is for the net and e-mails.
I can't program free hand. I have learnt how to script and do some basic programming in my time. You can't help but to have to learn to pick it up. It's not to hard just look for examples and move from there if your having problems.
Don't give up on it though, if you think UNIX is to hard to start with try Linux. That is pretty easy to use and learn, then when you think you can tackle Unix go for it. There's not to much difference between them in the basic base line commands.