I'm not a great mechanic, either, but I beleive it's possible on ANY car to get a new (or rebuilt) alternator. Most el-cheapo parts places will check and test your alternator for free. You might want to purchase the alternator elsewhere, but that all depends.

It's probably not the alternator though, if that were the case, you would probably have just noticed a dead battery. No, the problem you have sounds a lot more (to me) like you have a loose ground wire somewhere.

Get the front end checked out. Most brake places will do a 'safety check' for free. You could have a loose part somewhere, etc... especially since it seems to be getting worse!

Good luck.