I'm a bit new to screen and autossh:

I'm simply looking to "fully automate" my ssh sessions, make them implicitly persistent, and have them automatically restore should my connection drop.

I've tried using screen directly, but find some of its keystrokes (e.g. ctrl+a) interfere with my shell - i.e. they override shell/program functionality using the same keystroke. Is there a way around this?

In truth, I don't really even want to be aware that screen is running at all. I simply want to "ssh " from a terminal window, and have that connection persist should my network die, laptop go into sleep mode, etc.

Is my requirement naive? Am I oversimplifying?