Welcome Chris. Unfortunately we aready have to many Chris' (and Erics for that matter) so I am going to call you Joe.
Joe, that is exactly what happened to me. You will probably read those same articles on how to catch this or that a dozen times. If kayak fishing were compared to a drug it would probably be crystal meth. An addiction is probably a good way to look at this sport, because like an addict, you will eventually begin to hide your use, maybe even lie. This is often the case with the money involved. There will probably come a time in the future (if your finances are not separate) where you will begin to pull money out of the atm so that she will not see that tackle shop on the account again. I started down my path to addiction last summer, although I eschewed the bay and headed straight from Ric's OEX shop in Kearny Mesa straight to La Jolla and haven't looked back since.
I would like to tell you that it gets better. That with time on the water and a little therapy from a gifted psychiatrist, that you will not be sneaking off to jump on the computer to see if anyone has posted some monster fish in the 20 minutes since you were last on BWE. I want to be able to tell you that you can beat this thing, that it is just a phase, a novelty that will wear off. That soon enough its charm will be a distant memory, the kayak growing faded and sun rotted, forgotten along the side of the house. But that is really not the case. Its hold on you may ebb and flow, with life often getting in the way of you and your new addiction. But it is probably here to stay. Welcome Joe, my name is Eric and I am a kayak fisherman.