Good to hear from you. You’ll find a whole bunch of iPad enthusiasts in this Forum who are only too willing to help other iPad owners and to hear of their experiences. Don’t be afraid to post any questions you may have or use the ‘Search’ button near the top of the Forum web page. I usually find I discover one new interesting and useful piece of information about my iPad every day - and often not even what I was looking for!!
Technically the answer to your question is 'yes' - you could use your iPad without a home computer because the Apple Store would perform this initialisation step for you. But then you'd have no way of easily backing up your apps, videos, music, photos etc and would risk losing them all in the event of a fault with your iPad. The iPad was not designed to replace your existing computer but was rather intended, as Steve Jobs said, as a 'third way' - a better way of doing some things. I suspect you won't find many iPad users who only have an iPad and don't have a 'regular' computer - but I'm sure there are some, though.
Hope to hear from you soon with your thoughts about the iPad.
Have fun and enjoy your iPad
If you don’t already have it you can download a copy of the iPad manual for free.
Apple - Support - Manuals
It’s free too.
Tim
Scotland