MARC 21 makes me want to pass out

I haven't cataloged for about a year.  I'm using Unlocking the Mysteries of Cataloging: a Workbook of Examples by Elizabeth Haynes and Joanna F. Fountain to get started cataloging ephemera and things like toys, realia, artifacts, etc.  I'm about to fall asleep as I write this.  Not necessarily because it's a quiet, rainy Sunday, but because my brain is overwhelmed and wants me to stop right now and just rest.  I did exercise 107 in the book and followed the AACR2 rules they said would be needed, but didn't do it in MARC.  The records I have seen for ephemera aren't in MARC, and apparently there are so many MARC wizards (programs, not magical people in hats with wands) out there it's a possibility that catalogers don't have to have MARC memorized.  I'm in the process of downloading a trial version of MARC Magician from Mitinet to see how that works, and I printed out 10 copies of a MARC template.
So my first record, for Choo-Choo Charlie the Train, was kind of a disaster.  Didn't do it in MARC, misunderstood some of the AACR2 rules, the pencil is ugly, and now I am about to keel over and pass out.
I'm going to have to allow my brain this because I'm wasting it's time trying to force it to learn.