2005 Nissan Altima Bizarre electrical problem

I open my car door to get in and the interior lights, etc come on as normal. When I slide the key into the ignition, it will "ding" if the door is open. So far so good....but when I turn the key, everything turns off! The lights, the dinging noise the button that opens the trunk...everything stops working. No power to anything.

But then I can hit the dash or steering wheel and everything will turn back on (CDs will pop out of the CD player and the radio station presets and time are all reset).

I usually have to repeat this process a couple times before the car will start without everything turning off.

I'm assuming there has to be a short or something because the starter or battery wouldn't cause everything to just go dead, and then come back on when jarred would it?

Please help!