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Now it's down to the nitty gritty. My new iMac is due to arrive in the next day or so and my anxiety level is through the roof.

I really have no clue what I'm doing. I've never connected two computers together before. I've only ever installed things from inert media (eg, CDs) or downloaded stuff from the Internet.

It seems to me that connecting two appliances, each plugged into 110v, via sockets/ports which are powered via same, would be like taking an extension cord with two male plugs and plugging it into two wall sockets, blowing/shorting out everything in the house or in this case one or both computers. What am I missing?

Assuming that I can connect my two computers, what should I see on the screens of each? And how do I physically manipulate files/folders in OS 9 to get them over to the new iMac's OS X? Find them via an icon and drag them from one Desktop to the other?

Just as an example: What's an iTunes window? And how would I select the stuff (2 folders, as mentioned earlier) from one system and stick it in another?

And someone warned me about something called "permissions", to the effect that every file/document that comes from one machine to another needs to have access permission dealt with individually - which would mean manipulating thousands of files/documents in some way. What's all that about?

Does the new iMac and/or OS X 10.7 have something like OS 9's Disk First Aid which will fix things in case I do something stupid or perform an "illegal" function or the system crashes?

At this point about the only thing I feel comfortable with doing is installing some software (eg, browser, modem) which I have on discs and USB thumbdrives. I await definitive information and assurances about all else. Pretty please.

EDIT #1:
And so I went for a run to clear my head — didn't help — and then stood 'petrified' in a hot shower for 10 minutes — also didn't help.
I'm guessing that my best route is to use Apple's telephone tech support when the iMac arrives — if I screw things up on their instructions, they'll be on the hook to make it all better.

EDIT #2:
I just searched through Apple Help on my iMac running OS 9 and apparently there is no way to transfer files from it without some other intermediary (such as an external storage device). To say that I'm discouraged by the whole business of trying to upgrade would be understatement to the googol power. I'm about to forget about the whole business and not even bother to take the new one out of the box.