I fought with Photo Shop forever and never made friends with it. I have Paint Shop Pro 6.0 now and love it. Although, there are fewer downloadable fiters available for it, I have yet to find anything that Photo Shop can do that PSP can't.... and it's MUCH more user friendly. Plus, the fact that PSP has the "tubes" option puts it a notch above Photo Shop in my book.
Don't get me wrong... your work is fabulous, and I've seen professionals do absolutely amazing things in Photo Shop... but, for my personal taste, PSP is much better to work with.