thanks guys!
so here's what i found... possibly a neutral safety switch... or something thereabouts- i pushed the car forward in neutral and then put it back in park- and it cranked! so it must have thought it wasnt in park before. not sure if i really needed to roll the car or if just moving the shifter back n forth a couple times would've done the trick. i'll wait and see in the future if i run into this again, to know if i need to investigate further....

the car started up since i had a recharged battery in there- but when running, I tested voltage at the battery terminals and i'm getting only 11.49V - drove it around the block a few times.. then parked over night. this morning i tested the battery when not running and got 11.95V.
does this sound like a bad alternator? where its not charging (enough) to keep a full charge when running? could it be anything else- are there any other things i should test before pulling out the alternator?