my computer was significantly bumped while using Aperture. it took me to the login page to restart the computer. Aperture is not responding now. I'm running a consistency check, but it is taking forever. I only have 16 GB in my library. Any suggestions?

This is really a hardware/OS question, unless everything else works, and Aperture is the only program which doesn't. Is that the case?

significantly bumped

What exactly do you mean by that? Did you get any error messages - like "kernel panic"? Or are there any error logs in the Console window?

it still is not responding. and all my projects and albums were there... I was expecting it to be a new fresh, empty application where I would have to put all my pics back in, from my hd.

The Aperture application builds an Aperture Library where your images are kept. When you reinstalled Aperture, you probably only removed the Aperture Application from the Applications folder, but not the Aperture library with all your images from the Pictures folder. Then the newly installed application still can use the library. Perhaps your library has been corrupted when Aperture crashed. So, until Kirby comes back to this thread, you might wish to repair your library:

Try to launch Aperture again, while firmly holding down the key combination: ⌥⌘.

This will start the Aperture Library First Aid Tools. Select "Repair Permissions" from the panel and press "Repair ...". Then repeat, but select "Repair Database".

Good Luck

Léonie