Car Troubles

Yesterday morning, like most mornings, I got up and took Derek to meet his ride to go to work. When I parked in the parking lot to wait, I was stopped on a slight incline. I thought nothing of it. Derek's ride came. We kissed and he got out. Everything seemed just peachy. Wrong!
I started down the highway to go back to my house, hopefully to get 30 minutes or so of more sleep. I didn't even get a mile from where I left Derek when the warning light on my car came on that said "HIGH ENGINE TEMP" or something of the like. So I glanced at the temperature gage and sure enough it was over at the 260 mark in the red. I pulled the car off the highway as good as I could. There was only a small piece of shoulder and then a drop off so I was still kinda in the highway. People were going around me. I sat there a couple of minutes then turned the car back on. I called Derek in the mean time and asked him what could be wrong. He said it was probably the coolant fluid that was low. When I got off the phone with him, I pulled back onto the highway with the warning light still dinging and went on. It eventually went off and the temp went down. I thought everything was ok. No. It wasn't.
When I started slowing down to make the turns to my house, it started getting hot again. As I pulled up to the four-way stop near my house, it went hot again. I didn't stop though. I went onto the house and called my dad. I then checked the fluid. No fluid!!! I automatically thought that the people who changed my oil didn't check it and therefore didn't fill it, which I still think is what happened because they later told me there were no leaks.
So I put fluid in and went onto work. It was fine on the highway until I got to town and had to slow down. It went hot again. I was highly pissed by that point. So I called my dad and he suggested I take it to get it looked at. So I did. And $137.00 later, they had changed the thermostat. $137!!!. The thermostat alone was only $13. They charged me all that money just to change it! I was pissed.......
Next time, if it's something Derek can do, he will do it. :P
So that was my car troubles. But life happens and it does go on.