Car lurches really badly

[n2x4]

Well, I was on my way home from picking my brother up at a party, and all of a sudden I started to lose a lot of power. I couldn't keep going because it was surging so bad that the car was bucking. I pulled it over, and went for a walk (I was about a mile from home). I got home, got a ride back to the car and started it up. Started fine. A little unsure, I took it for a drive back into town. As soon as I made it to town (maybe 2 miles) it started lurching again. I limped it to the first auto shop I could find by running with the clutch half engaged so it didn't lurch so bad.

I've never had this problem before. Sometimes at startup it would clunk a little bit and then warm up and be fine, but nothing that worried me. Now, if I put it in neutral and just hold the gas pedal at 2k rpm after it's warmed up it'll go from 2 down to 1.5, back to 2, down to 1 and clunk, and all over again. I've read the hesitation threads so I'm thinking check plugs and wires? I also only have the NA motor so all the turbo talk I tried to ignore. What about a bad injector or clogged filter? Could my timing belt have slipped? I don't know the last time it was changed. I've got 174k miles on the car and it's a 5 speed.

I don't particularly want to leave it at the shop, but it was the only place I could leave a car at overnight. I do plan to try and fix it myself. I could try and drive the 3 miles to get it home, but as soon as it wams up, it goes bad. Help??