I just picked up my first bike today. I found it on Craigslist. The guy I got it from had a whole garage full of bikes: road bikes, mountain bikes, touring bikes, bmx bikes, cruisers, etc. And they were all name brand bikes.
I traded him my old snowboard for it. I haven't done anything to it yet. I'm going to buy the Zinn book and kinda look over the whole thing before I go on my 13 mile round trip commute. I think I'll take it for a short ride this evening just to get a feel for it.
I have a few things to buy before I commute anyways:

panniers or trunk bag
rack
Light (commuting in the morning before sun-up)
Helmet
flat tire kit
the essentials.

But I'm totally excited! It may not be as pretty as a lot of the bikes here, but it's functional and it's mine. For a starter bike I'm happy with it. I have been scouring CL for a couple of weeks now and haven't found a bike. I was getting desperate...so much that I was looking at a Schwinn bike at Wal-Mart, in spite of everything I've read here.