Vertical Stripes on Screen and computer crashes

My Macbook Pro is 2 years old. A few days ago I was uploading a video to you-tube when the entire screen was suddenly covered by purple (I think) vertical stripes. After several minutes they disappeared but the computer was frozen. I shut it down (by holding down the power button). I had to restart at least 5 times and wait an hour before it booted up normally. I thought the computer was shot actually and was really sad. (I have a lot of irreplacable photos of my new 3 month old in iPhoto...). When it finally booted up properly I immediately backed up all of my stuff to a portable hard drive. Luckily, because today it has happened again. I was watching a video that someone had sent me when the stripes came back and the whole thing froze. This time the stripes did not go away and I have not yet been able to reboot successfullly (I am on my husband's PC right now).
I have just moved to Pensacola Florida from California and apparently the nearest Mac store is New Orleans (which is a 3 hour drive). I will do it gladly if they really will be able to help me. I would appreciate any advice or suggestions!
Thanks