finally figured it out... duh, I have to remove the brackets (also I guess all MySQL databases have to be named in all caps.
So just in case anybody else has this problem:
Go to:
http://www.macromedia.com/go/6ef0253
follow the directions, and for the JDBC URL, enter:
jdbc:mysql://[host]:[port]/[database]
except be sure to enter your own personal information and remove the brackets (for my example: jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/MYDB