i have an update.

i went to my LBS yesterday on my way home from work and the verdict is that we had to order new bearings. my buddy there who's the mechanic started general and got more specific. he wanted to take the fork off and clean everything down and while he was doing that we encountered our problem. i have an FSA headset and when he went to take the [forgive me, i don't know the lingo] bearings off of the top and bottom of the head tube, they came out in 2-3 pieces. there's the piece on top, the piece of rubber that the ball bearings sit in, and then the piece on the bottom. these were all coming out separately instead of one unit. my bike is ~3 yrs old so this also makes sense.

so he ended up cleaning everything off anyway, greased, and ordered new bearings. i have a stage race this weekend and because i only have one bike, this will be fine for the race. they will be replaced after that.

thank you for your suggestions guys, it helped!