I killed my camera

So I have sucessfully murdered my camera. It died a slightly exciting death. I was passing it to my best friends stepdad so he could take a picture of me and the rest of my early college english class with our profersser at the state capitol when I being the huge klutz I am dropped it and it passed on to the camera afterlife. So now I am looking for a new camera and I have no clue what kind to get or what the best brand is. I'm really intersted in photography and would like to get a slightly more uspscale camera then I had. I would love some help on the matter so come forth with your recommendations!!! I am clueless so any input is appreaciated!! thank you!!

Oh, I'm so sorry you lost your camera at such an important event! I hope someone else got pictures they'll share.

Have you studied cameras at all, to see what would suit what you want to use it for? Mine is pretty "old" now but when I picked it out my husband, who is more knowledgable than I am about such things, said I had to first decide did I want computer pictures or "paper" photos. I chose computer since I like posting stuff.

I found this site: http://photo.net/equipment/digital/basics/ which has the basics. Did your old camera have a paper guide or anything that might teach you more than you know? I didn't read my camera book until recently and was surprised at how much information and how helpful it was about photography in general.