uh, where'd my character go

I just tried to log into my account and after it connects it goes to the very first screen where it wants me to pick a realm to play on....

I know they're doing maint on the servers but I connected fine, it's just like everything is erased

It will almost always do that during maint, nothing to worry about

ok thanks, i've only been playing for a week or so

WoW -> Realm Status (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/realmstatus/)

When your server icon goes green you are good to go.

It will almost always do that during maint, nothing to worry about

What he said. Your "player" is actually hosted, depending on which portion of that character you're referring to, on three separate, logical devices so just because the login server is up doesn't mean your character is completely avaliable.