OS X :: Home Folder 10.6.5 - Acting Very Slow

I got me a macbook pro 10.6.5, 8 gb memory, and 2.8 intel processor - software newly updated and all in order and I keep it pretty organized and use my permissions repairs and all that malarky and all was fine and good until I closed the lid on my When i opened it, it was acting very slow - much slower than normal and had a lot of spinning beach-balls of death. I forced it to shut-down as it did not seem as if it was in a happy place, and upon restarting, things are going even SLOWER.

Weirdly, too my finder sidebar had jumped back to defaults. in trying to open itunes, it had also gone back to defaults, and when i tired to open my mail, it crashed out, saying it could not index anything... I've managed to get my mail programme working, (practically by reinstalling everything) but - and here's the kicker - I can open firefox and use internet and other programmes ok, at regular speed, but if I try click onto my home folder, or documents folder or anything that has to do with this account, the whole thing freezes and takes AGES to do anything, beach balls of death, etc... I've even opened new account and tried to access that guest account's home folder and documents etc, and there are no issues with speed or access.