I ended up submitting a case and it was answered for the first time in months, and I also submitted the text I put in the case in the "submit a request feature" to ensure it wasn't missed. I work with extremely LARGE files, so I am hoping / thinking that they failed to upload and the cases I have submitted the past few months never arrived at the proper destination.
My issue that caused the freezing was having way too many objects on a slide to simulate animation. An increased number of objects can really bog the program down, no matter how much of a powerhouse your laptop / machine is. I lost several days of work on a project as well as coworkers in my IT department who painstakingly went through my computer to ensure it wasn't a machine problem. I had a meeting one on one with an articulate support member and we had great conversation and were able to devise a solution to get my deliverable moving in the right direction again.
Thanks, wanted to provide a public update given this freezing issue. Hope it helps!