You can't hide behind that Newbie tag for ever you know. You're one of the old timers now!
A few things might have happened. but I think it is possible you were trying, unsuccessfully, to connect as an ultrapeer. I had this happen to me once and my connection was completely messed up . I dissabled ultrapeer capabilities in options>speed, restarted and all was fine.
After you disconnect either intentionally or unintentionally, you remain connected to the hosts you were connected to, but not to the whole network. This is why the uploads continued.
By restarting it seems you did just the right thing. If it happens again, open the connections tab in View > Show Hide>connections and see if you have a lot of lines saying "connecting". If so Dissable ultrapeer capabilitie.
I hope this helps. Best Wishes