Mac Noob: Made a mistake when trying to change my User name?

Ok - I just got a macbook pro OS 10.6.2 after using a PC for my entire life. When getting started, I put my full name and now my User is . Well that's really long and all of my paths are . I tried to change that to "home" by following instructions under Apple Support that told me to go enable root access. I tried following the directions that seemed straightforward enough, but when I logged out of root and back into home, I now have a folder called "home" and my still exists but is blank. So all the software and music I uploaded is gone. If I navigate to the "home" folder, my desktop files are there but obviously not the software because it's just a folder. I have no idea what to do. I just wanted to change the computer name.