MacBook - Where's the menu bar??

So.. my mac suddenly stopped responding today (the cursor was the spinning rainbow wheel for the longest time)... this was in finder (at the top left, it said finder and not some other program), and then trying to restart the comp the usual way didn't work.

and then i did the forbidden thing of just pressing the power button to shut it off and restart it. i'm guessing that's the source of my problem now, because no matter how many times i restart my comp, the icons that were on the right hand side of the menu bar (date, time, airport status, sound, etc.) don't show up anymore! those on the left (apple icon, program, etc.) do, though...

anyone have any idea of how to fix this? it's really a pain not having that side of the menu bar...

thanks!!