[Shawn Simpson]

those little bookends are called the "edit insertion cursors" and you're seeing those in addition to the arrows that are called the "timeline insertion cursors" because you have apparently unlinked them. There is a small icon in the black bar below the tools that has a picture of the bookends and a little set of arrows. That's the "link edit/timeline selection" button. Make sure it's enabled and you should be back in business.

By the way, the shortcut to turn that on and off from the keyboard is shift+/, so if you'll look at the shift key on the right side of your keyboard, you'll probably see a great opportunity to accidentally toggle yourself into a very miserable state.