so I have my laptop back… yay! I can actually like log in and read my mail at will now instead of at the good graces of beststephi and sui66iy (both of whom I thank for allowing me to use their machines this last week).
It turns out that it was not a loose cable, nor was it a damaged screen. I had a bad logic board. It was probably defective all along and just got worse, which might explain why I had always had a problem waking it from a sleep. (that is apparently a possible symptom). Anyway, it was covered under warranty and now I have it back and it seems better than ever.
I also bought a LaCie firewire drive while I was out there. I will use this to back up and fix my desktop. The screwed up part is that after paying $300, I get home and it looks like someone had previously opened the box and swiped the CD of free software. So I need to call and try and acquire one of those now… *sigh* its always something.
UPDATE: I lied. I found the CD. It was just stuck in an awkward place inside the box where one might miss it. So now I have everything. Oh happy day!