I got it rooted. Only I skipped one step and spaced rebooting into recovery which after I forced it to VD blew out the rooting (I'm guessing this is the case since Superuser isn't on there and the recovery I supposedly flashed (Xiona CWMA custom recovery) doesn't show up in recovery... in fact it's blank... SO I'm guessing I have v9's recovery with VD's ROM... which brings up a few questions:
1. Do you have the newer Optimus S that has the new drivers so v9 is blank? If so, what recovery are you using? I heard recovery-clockwork-3.0.0.6-ov-20110220 works...
2. After you have it rooted, did you just reboot into recovery, nand, and flash a new ROM? If so, which ROM? I'm thinking ThundeROM.
Again, thanks for being the responsive sounding board. The Hero, G1, and EVO were so darn easy, this thing is so darn complicated.

But I like a challenge and that moment where you're like "will this brick... guess we'll find out!"