Im definitely going to try to clean this up but wanna let you know that I got it to work as you suggested, albeit a bit fiddly (Ithink it has to do with what you said about the delay).
I had to make the delay to 1500 for everything to get situated on power up, but I also found that I had hardware issues when everything was tied together which I needed to deal with. Basically, I had the function generator, arduino and screen all on separate power sources and I think I had floating grounds between boards as everything waas on its own power. I tied everything to a single power source and it started functioning.
I gotta do 3 Mothers Day events this weekend so I wont be able to get back to this until Monday and employ your recommended changes, but I really appreciate your help.