engine problems

[darkblue]

hey, i own a 95 se, and recently, i've been having some engine trouble. i was on my way from san jose to san diego, when my check engine light came on around bakersfield. i didn't really notice anything wrong with the car at the time, and i couldn't just turn around, so i just drove the rest of the way down; and there were no problems. however, it's been a couple days since then and the check engine light is still on and i've noticed that it's having some trouble accelerating. for example, no matter how fast i'm going, if the engine's at about 2800-3000 rpm and i try to accelerate (not very hard), it will jump immediately up to 4000 and will only drop back down to about 32-3500 if i let up on the gas a little. i know close to nothing about engines, so i was wondering if anyone could tell me what could be wrong, and if there is any way i could fix the problem myself. and if there's no way i could fix it myself, an estimate on how much it would cost to be fixed. thanks in advance.