I got home and went straight to bed.
I noticed later I had been too exhausted even to change the work clothes I had on.
Working as a waitress was paying the bill and covering school, but the long hours were brutal. Luckily, I had requested my boss some time off to do my exams for a week, and he agreed. Mom sent me some money to help me out, and I could finally get some sleep. In the morning, I knew something was different because the house was suddenly chilly. It seemed the AC unit wasn’t blowing in an adequate amount of heat into the house it had the night before. The temperature swings were worrying because it was winter, and no one wanted to stay in a freezing house. I went to check the thermostat and noticed it had an error mark. That meant it was defective, and I had to call on an AC repair person to fix it. The HVAC company was located a few minutes from the house, which made it easy for the HVAC professional to get there in good time. He had to turn off the heating system before he could work on the thermostat. I explained to him the house had been warm the previous night and cold that morning. The HVAC system had an old thermostat which was proving cumbersome to repair. After a few trials, the AC mechanic suggested changing it to a more modern version. The smart thermostat would cause me fewer problems with the heating in the house, plus I could control it using an app on my phone. It was the best news since I always wanted to turn on the central AC before getting home. That way, the house could be warm or cool when I got inside.