ok, so an update...
i decided that since i wasn't n the latest baseband, that i would try upgrading. as it turns out, i was the only one at work having issues with their verizon 3g. SO... what i did first was dial the *22899 thing and let vzw (re)activate my phone on the old baseband. honestly, that might have fixed the problem, but i didn't go try it out (don't get 3g at the house [more on this later]) so there's no way to know for sure. then i decided while i was at it, i would just go ahead and upgrade to C_01.43.01P and again was prompted to activate my phone. i drove out to work where i noticed the original problem and had GREAT 3g service, actually a bar better than my buddy there with a droid incredible. then i came home and noticed that i currently have two bars of 3g!! that has NEVER happened. only once before have i seen the 3g icon pop up at my house, and still not showing bars...
so the moral of the story is likely to dial *22899 and that should fix it. but this new baseband is showing significant improvement over the last one..
anyway, not sure what exactly solved the problem, but doing one of those two things fixed it.