Thanks for the suggestion; its working on unzipping as I speak but I'm about to run to a meeting.
In terms of the request, I think the actual SoapUI is okay. Right before I left yesterday I created a new request and it worked, thus my current guess is the project file is corrupt. I'm not sure why SoapUI wouldn't complain while loading it, but I just find it odd that it works for new requests. It's not quit an Apples to Apples comparison as the new request was just a request whereas the part that quit working is in the testing module, but with the application locking up and windows killing it, this theory seems more plausible then SoapUI just quits working.
I'm unzipping the standalone partially just to see how it reacts to the project; if my gut is right and there's a problem with the project hopefully I can fix it and hopefully the standalone is more stable (thus addressing the assumed root cause of stability corrupting the file in some way). Or I could get really lucky, be completely wrong, and your suggestion magically fixes everything.
Will update as I know more; I REALLY appreciate the ideas!