Just as an update, I just build my second wheel and it turned out much better.
I never took this one to the shop.
I couldn't find a whole lot of posts of some dingle of the street describing how they built a wheel without the proper tools and knowledge.
I mostly found posts like this one that asked questions and some people making suggestions.
I pulled from a variety of places so I think i'll make a post with some pics of how it went this time around.