Make Illustrator more like Freehand?

I'm a longtime Freehand lover, but now (snif) trying to learn Illustrator in case what I expect to happen happens. I'm finding it hard. I don't think Illustrator is nearly as intuitive as FH, and while everyone says it's so "powerful," for most stuff that I do, the interface and methods just seem a lot more complicated.

My question is this: are there ways to make Illustrator more "Freehandish" through preferences or free plug-ins or some other means?

Particularly vexing to me is the way objects are selected and manipulated. I find it incredibly hard to grab objects in AI! When I grab an object, I can't SEE what I'm doing because of all the stuff around it (outlines of the parts of grouped objects, tiny pop-up labels that say "path") and the way it's constantly highlighting parts of lines or text in blue. Is there a way to make the selected object show simply the exterior handles (ala FH) and not show all the other stuff?

Also, once objects are masked, is there some way to NOT SHOW all the stuff that's been masked (a la paste inside)? When I drag something that's a mask, it confuses me no end when all the stuff that's been masked comes along for the ride. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE Adobe, add a "paste inside" command to the next AI (Even InDesign has it).

I guess I'm just having trouble seeing what's going on and selecting the right objects. Any help would be appreciated!