Chubbyslatte, I highly recommend getting started with a braggot, they are good! I made mead exclusively for years (nearly a decade, sheesh- time does fly!), then got my feet wet with braggot, this is the recipe that started it all:
For 5 gallons:
6 lbs amber DME (Dried Malt Extract)
10 lbs raw honey (buckwheat I think)
1 lb Dingemans Special B Malt (steeped)
.75 oz cascade hops (boil 30 min)
.75 oz cascade hops (boil 5 min)
Yeast: Wyeast 1762: Abbey Ale II Yeast
Note, this requires no special equipment other than a mesh bag for the malt (you need to crush the grains too, that is something I did not realize at first!). The wort does need a full boil which is different than mead making. Anyway, this recipe could be tweaked some more I'm sure, but you get the idea.
This lead me to start researching beer brewing and I got going in the fall of 2011- I'm now on my 18th batch of beer! Then while you are waiting FOREVER for your mead to finish, you can make some beer in the meantime - its nice to have a finished product in a couple of months instead of a year or more.