Stress And Santa Barbara

Somewhat of a stressful day. I left for Santa Barbara, as usual, at 9:00 and got to Betty's, as usual, at 11:28. We went down the street to The Natural Cafe, a place I'm beginning to heartily hate for a variety of reasons. For one, it's always crowded, it's noisy, and for two, I resent having to order at a counter and get my own utensils. Naturally, it's no less pricey than regular restaurants.
It took Betty an age to decide what she wanted; that was as usual, too. She finally got a veggie burger, which is what I had ordered. Things were okay after that and we went back to her apartment. She asked if I wanted to play Chutes And Ladders (which my kids had played when they were--oh, six or seven), but I begged off.
Now here's why it was stressful: The magazine section of the Sunday Ventura County Star had a story about the actor, Robert Downey, Jr. The minute I saw it, I knew I wanted to take it to Betty, as she had been a hospice case manager in Santa Barbara years ago, and had cared for his mother. There was even a picture of him hugging his mother--what fun for her to see that! I gave her the paper and she seemed a little befuddled--she didn't actually remember caring for the mother. I chalked that up to her dementia and we went to lunch. (More on the stress part later.)
It occurred to me that it would be good to have Betty visit for a few days in early February. On Monday, the third, Betty, Carolyn, and I are meeting my nephew and his wife in Ventura and Carolyn could take us to my place after. I thought she could stay until maybe, Thursday, then we'd go back on the bus and I could stay over at her place until the next day. Betty loved the idea, so we have an excursion planned.
I left about 1:30, so I could get the bus into downtown Santa Barbara, where I'd get the 2:20 back to Ventura. Did so, and got off at the mall/transit center, where I went to Target for blueberries (I decided to make a blueberry buckle for my lunch guests tomorrow) and to Trader Joe's for their two-buck Chuck chardonnay (Nancy likes white, even with Italian food.) I'll have the Chianti--I wouldn't dream of drinking white with lasagna!
I had just walked in the door when Betty called. She said she had called Carolyn to tell her I had given her the story on Robert Downey, Jr. and Carolyn immediately said Betty had never cared for his mother. What--but of course she had, I clearly remember her telling me about it! No, it was the mother of ROB LOWE she had cared for in hospice!
We both got a good laugh out of it, but I was chagrined--and a tiny part of me was worried, for obvious reasons, that I had made such a mistake. I called Carolyn and left a message, saying I was the secretary for Robert Downing, Jr., and he was going to sue her mother for a false report.
When Carolyn called me back, we both laughed over it and she assured me she didn't think it was evidence that I was going into the brain-darkness I'm nervous about. I felt better after that and we had a long talk, about an hour, in fact.
Had a sketchy dinner, then jumped in the shower, washed my hair, and sat down with the T.V. to relax. Stress over, I'm happy to report, and now, it's off to the 7 am doctor appointment.