Mark me as an idiot, first. Somehow, I managed to lose all my iphone contacts during a sync with itunes. I didn't know itunes did not back up...

Contacts are included in the iPhone backup, but are designed to be synced with a supported contact application on your computer. In your case, that would be Address Book. Sounds like you synced to an empty Address Book. Doing so effectively tells the sync process to remove the contacts from your phone. By syncing after the contacts were removed from your phone, you also removed them from your iPhone backup. So, to fix this, do the following: First put ONE contact in Address Book, this entry can be fake, that doesn't matter. The important point is that Address Book not be empty. Next, disable auto-sync under iTunes>Preferences>Devices. Connect your iPad. Right-click your iPad in the device pane & select "Reset Warnings". Then, make sure on the Info pane you selected sync contacts & sync all contacts with Address Book. Hit the sync button. You should get a popup regarding your contacts asking to "merge" or "replace". Select "MERGE". Eject your iPad when complete. Verify all of your contacts are in Address Book. If so, contact your phone, select sync contacts with Address Book. When complete, your contacts should be back on your phone.