Emily,
Dude, I feel your pain.
Like most of these cars, the water pumps tend to fall apart after 50k miles, which would cause bad overheating. It happened on my 95 GL at 70k miles and I know its happened to a lot of us. My best advice is the second that your car starts to overheat and gets in to the red is to STOP DRIVING IT IMMEDIATELY!!! Driving a car around with an engine hotter then Hitler in Hell, will ruin a lot more then just your afternoon. Also, talk to people around your town and find a good honest car garage. A lot of dealerships won't hesitate to charge up the A$$ for little to no work accomplished.
Good look with your Contour, and I hope things turn for the better.
