Bought myself a new guitar with some of my year end bonus:
https://rockguitaruniverse.com/review/esp-ltd-ec-256/ I really dig it. The purple sunburst looks great and it fits pretty comfortably. Years ago my parents got me an Epiphone Dot and that was really not my thing; it felt a little cumbersome to play and I liked heavy metal and punk rock, so it didn't fit the image either. That, combined with a bad experience with lessons had me off learning to play for years.

I only got a small amp to begin with - an Orange Crush Mini.

Fender's online guitar school is also pretty great. $50 for a year of access is pretty reasonable. They mix it up pretty well between learning chords and playing simplified version of popular guitar riffs. I probably would have kept playing if there was something like this when I tried before. Books don't cut it and guitar teachers trying to push you to make up solos on the spot 3 months into lessons weren't my thing.

Some of the other online guitar lessons seem really great as well. When I was trying to learn before, I had a lot of trouble with bar chords. Just finding someone online doing a video about hand adjustments to actually get it is fantastic; my guitar teacher basically had no advise, just told me to keep trying.

No, keep up on it ....
I like the look of those guitars, however, it's not my preference to actually play ...
(Many people like them though, and they sound good and play well) ...

I've never had a lesson in my life, yet I'm a professional musician ...

It's a very fun thing to do, even if you just pluck away familiar songs to yourself ...
Keep it up, and congrats on the fine pic of instrument ...