Help! Tripod for new photography w/ Nikon D3200?

[_t_is_me_]

My husband purchased a Nikon D3200 DSLR for me over the summer. I have been enjoying it and am now taking classes to better learn how to use it. Some of our assignments work better with a tripod, although one is not required. I went to Best Buy today and bought a $30 tripod thinking it would be more than sufficient for my novice skills. I could barely get it to hold a slightly upright position. The rest of the tripod seems fine and has all the features I want, but like I said, when I try to put it in an angled upwards position, it drops back down about 1/2 an inch (a lot, in my opinion).

Since I am so new at this (and because I'd like to spend my money on cooler things like a macro lens), I don't want to spend a lot. I'm not sure what that means, because I also want to have a nice tripod so I hopefully don't have to do buy another one anytime soon.

My gear currently includes Nikon D3200 camera body with kit lens (18-55 mm f/3.5-5.6) and a 55-200 mm f/4-5.6 lens. I would like to get a decent macro lens and ring flash in the near future.

I'm interested in taking long exposures and macro photography, but I also take a lot of landscapes and close-ups, some portraits (and I'd like to do more of them). Basically, I'm interested in a lot of different kinds of photography, so I want most of my equipment to be multi-use, including my tripod.

Features I know I want:

Leg stability (obviously don't want the thing collapsing and hurting my brand new camera)
High range of motion. I like the idea of a ball head (if my understanding is correct), so that I can tilt, pan, pretty much move in any direction I want to
Stability once I have the camera in the position that I want it
Quick release camera mount
I would like it to have a fairly low minimum height (<10 inches), but I am willing to give on this a little bit
I'd like it to be no shorter than approximately 60" max height (or taller)
I would like the legs to adjust to my specifications, not pre-determined settings
Lastly, light weight is a plus, but not a huge consideration, as I probably won't be traveling around with the thing

Any help you can throw at me is greatly appreciated!

(Apparently I cannot edit the title? This is why third shift on four hours of sleep + forum posts should not be combined.)