Is there no simple way to have a gallery that I embed in my site?

I don't even know if this is the right place to post this. I've been reading support pages and forum posts for the last three hours and i'm more confused than when I started.

I have the latest version of G2 installed on the site I'm working on. I want to put gallery into the design of my site. I almost accomplished this once by editing templates or themes (I honestly can't even keep them straight now), the photos displayed as i wanted for non logged in users, but when I tried to access it as an admin, everything was screwed up because of the css. I need to put the gallery into a page that already has a left-hand column in a <div>. I don't want an additional left-hand gallery-generated column. How do I drop that out and still have access to those admin items when I (or the client) will need them? I don't want the regular user to see anything except the albums and the individual pictures. no comments, no anything else. just forward, back, to albums. And I want to be able to still use the imageblock on the homepage and other places.

I am not a complete n00b, but after today, I'm wondering if gallery has just gotten too complex for anyone who doesn't have hours and hours to devote to any little change. The documentation is so confusing. I can't figure out exactly what embedding means for anything. I want to ditch all the gallery header and footer and all that jazz. I've read through the "how to visually embed" and for the life of me I cannot understand if that's what I want to do. I kind of think it is, but again, I want to dtich the gallery sidebar, etc for the guest/regular joe user.