A rant about LR 3.3

Is it really me or is this about the most user unfriendly program you have to for period?

I just simply want to open a picture, change it and save it. But no: apparantly the pictures that i shows are already in some "catalog". When I open the only catalog I know, they are not there. And there is no way to selct them, they are constantly vague and remain that way.

Why is it so strange and impossible for LR 3.3 to simply show me any foto I chose, let me PP it and than save wherever I want? at my work, we have exactly the same troubles with the latest versions of MS Office for instance. When it choses somehting for you it is one of the most illogical choices you can imagine...