From wp.com, need simple first theme to get started

I started a blog on wordpress.com, got used to the interface, found my blogging voice, and decided to set up my own. Importing stuff from the original blog was simple (awesome really). Took a few minutes! This is neat!

Now, I want to start adding in some plugins, and taking advantage of other benefits of wp.org hosted blog.

When I went to technorati, they gave me some code to paste into my theme sidebar template, but in the default theme that was installed, there is no sidebar template. I’m stuck at what is probably a very simple step. But I don’t know how to get past this step. I’m sure this is “easy” to get a new theme, but there are so many thousands to choose from I don’t know where to start.

(My default theme has a wordpress logo, which I would also like to replace with the name of my blog).

Thanks in advance for any help anyone could offer!
Jerry Waxler
(www.memorywritersnetwork.com/blog)