Icons and dock missing from desktop
I restarted my macbook and nothing loads. Everything on the desktop is missing. The dock is missing. Even the time and stuff in the upper right corner are gone. The bar at the top with the apple logo and tabs that say File, Edit, View, etc, are the only things that appear. I'm able to clock on them and search for things I have saved, but nothing appears on the desktop. It's just a big blank blue screen. I did some research online and someone said to hold the Shift key, but that didn't work. Messing with the dock setting in system preferences doesn't work either. If anyone has some tips, it would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
MacBook, Mac OS X (10.6.8)