Sudden Slowdown

Hey guys.

Just like the title implies - 2010 i5 MBP, 4gigs RAM, 500gig HDD, 10.6.8.

I am on vaca halfway across the country so do not have access to install discs Everything was working fine, and then Saturday came along and I wanted to watch my football game (SC/ECU...obviously not playing in Colorado ;P) and ESPN3 prompted me to upgrade flash, which I did. Now everything is slow as molasses. I've tried uninstalling flash, which I initially believed to be the culprit, but no joy. It now boots like an old Windows machine (i.e. VERY SLOWLY) , and when it finally DOES boot, everything moves very slowly, and I get pinwheels every 10-15 seconds. Was thinking about upgrading to Lion anyway, and I started the download last night...think a clean install might be a good idea?

Oh - only reason I am so desperate to get it firing on all pistons, I NEED it to get some homework done while I'm out of town. I really DO NOT want to get back home tomorrow and not get to sleep because I'm fiddling with my system discs, reinstalling, doing HW all night long, etc

I do also regularly backup w/ time machine on a 1TB external hard drive, but again - no system discs on my physical person/ need a functional computer ASAP. It can't even keep up with my typing without throwing up a pinwheel once or twice.