Not much else to add; you've already gotten lots of great advice. Get thee on a bike & to a class! Just wanna add my 2 cents on helmets. Living in Phoenix, I used to wear a half helmet all the time but found that when it was really hot, a full-face was actually more comfortable since it kept the oven-blast off my face, thus allowing me to actually keep my eyes open (kinda useful when riding). I then only used the half-helmet in the evenings or at night, until one night I crashed while foolishly riding fatigued & buzzed (what a surprise, eh? I now avoid both when riding). Luckily the helmet took the brunt of the impact instead of my face, and I've been a firm believer in full-face helmets ever since. I bought a Nolan flip-face type when I was able to ride again, and it lasted 3 years before I crashed again, this time due to going around a blind corner way too fast only to discover to my dismay that the pavement ended abruptly and there was gravel on what little pavement was left. I inadvertantly locked the rear brake, fishtailed, and highsided. Luckily I landed & rolled in a nice soft ditch, so I suffered nothing other than a few bruises, but my helmet took a good thump on a rock(enough to mis-align the flip mechanism - but better that than any of my head's mechanisms) so I'm now on my 2nd Nolan. In retrospect, in the moment of panic when I braked, I completely forgot the techniques I had learned in the MSF Experienced class I had taken 18 months prior (i.e. straighten the bike, use more & more front & less & less rear brake, & fer cryin' out loud don't go around blind corners too fast), and the reason I forgot was that I hadn't practiced them at all since the time of the class. I now practice the technique at every stop, and as your experience reinforces, I scan a lot more for gravel or other road hazards.
There's an old saying that a fool never learns from his mistakes, a smart person does learn from his mistakes, but a truly wise person learns from the mistakes of others. Since I don't want to use up any more of the good luck I've been blessed with so far, I'm always eager to learn the lessons that others have learned (without going thru their pain), so I appreciate you sharing your mishap with all of us MOrons. Hope our experiences help you out too. Ride safe & ride often!