Ok, just when I thought I had figured it out! My store was almost ready, all I had to do was to figure out the correct shipping.
I realized that I had to do the upgrade (I must've downloaded zencart the day before the patch came out! didn't think to look so soon for an upgrade).

Well, somehow in my state of exhaustion, I think I double clicked and sent the ftp into upload mode. By the time I realized it there were way too many files in my web directory. When I tried logging on to the store it was GONE!!!!!!
Then I went in and reloaded my backup files and deleted all irrelevant files. Now I got my store and site back BUT these two problems....

1. I can't access the checkout on ssl as before. There's quite a hangtime getting to the checkout. When I check the configure.php it has SSl=True
Do I need to call my hosting and have them reapply ssl to the newly reloaded files/directory? Everything works fine as before except for the ssl issue.

2. I keep getting that the configure.php file is writable but when I check it is mode 644. What gives?

It's my birthday today....not much of a birthday present.
I thought I'd be launching the store today.....guess not

Please help me fix my stupid stupid mistake.