October 1st, One Year Later

The first of October is probably an auspicious day for many people, for a variety of reasons. For me, October 1, 2019, is the day I was unceremoniously dumped from my Dream Job working for the Santa Barbara Downtown Organization. I worked for this organization for more than 6 years, but it was a large part of my life for more than two decades, as a downtown business member (with Borders), as a volunteer, and eventually in 1999, as a member of the Board of Directors. Downtown Santa Barbara as a location was part of my life, living/working/dining/entertainment, since I moved there in 1995. To be “unceremoniously dumped” by this organization was a huge punch in the gut. But since I clearly survived that stunning and life-changing day, I owe a debt of gratitude to so many people.

My first call after I left the office that day, Millie in tow, was to Maggie Campbell – she of the clear-headed, no-nonsense advice, and my friend and mentor. My first text, moments later, was to Hattie Husbands and Imelda Martin. They were shocked and angered – both satisfying emotions that perfectly fit the mood. The first person I saw, 15 minutes after leaving the office, was my friend Jennifer Zacharias. We’d already planned to meet for a glass of wine (or two) and to catch up. Raising our glasses in the comfy Grassini Family Vineyards tasting room, I said, “Here’s to…being suddenly unemployed.” Her beautiful smile fell from her face so fast, it was as if, well, she’d been punched in the gut. It was good to sit with her, drinking wine, processing the previous hour; she heard it all.

But it was the Ladies of the Goleta Chamber who made the biggest difference in the following few months. A couple of hours after I got home that October 1^st, they reached out, wrapped three virtual sets of arms around me, hustled me back into the world, and offered me a job. Funny…when the president of your board of directors, a person who has known you for at least 10 years, says to you, “Kate, I don’t even know what you do here,” you start to believe that about yourself a little bit. “What do I do here?!?”

The Ladies of the Goleta Chamber - Kristen Miller, Michele Schneider, Cortney Rintoul - waved off that rubbish. The job they saved me with was a job that I wasn’t sure I could do, but no matter – they knew I could do it. Thanks to them, for the first time in my life I could say with pride, “I make my living as a writer.”

From then until now, my life upheaved, changed, improved – and I’m grateful to so many other people.

Thanks to Hugo Mendez for selling my condo, and to Sarah Sinclair for having a hand in that. She wrote an amazing article, summing up life in my beloved condo so succinctly - I don't know if it helped clinch the sale, but I sure loved it. And I had wonderful neighbors! Charlie, Jennifer, Marcia, Holly and Jeremy all aided in making the condo more sell-able. Thanks to my brother John and his son Brendan for loading all my stuff into a truck and moving it to AZ; here, my AZ family unloaded/reloaded/unloaded everything into this amazing new home (shout-out to Judi, AZ Real Estate Queen!).

Huge (and continuing) thanks to Hattie and Imelda, for months’ worth of unwavering support, for throwing a rousing Farewell Party, and for feeding me those last few days in Santa Barbara. Thanks to long distance friends Christine Schaefer, Nancy Johnson, Cassidy Brewer, Jenna Raimist, and Lisa McCorkle for bolstering me once again, as has become their habit. Thanks to SB friends like Tammy Steuart, Dave Lombardi, Amy Cooper, Kristen Weidemann, Starshine Roshell, April Lee, Ronnie Shabazian, Maryann Mendoza, and so many others, for their support in various and greatly appreciated ways. Thanks to my entire family, for supporting my decision to move, as well as sending love my way after I got dumped. And to all the friends who attended my Farewell Party (shout-out to Doug Margerum for hosting at the lovely Margerum Tasting Room!) – thank you. It was hard to say good-bye, but so wonderful to see all of you.

From October 1, 2019 to October 1, 2020, I’ve survived and even thrived. (Of note: I'm grateful for my job as blogger for A Better Today Recovery Services the past three months. I met that great team only via Zoom, but that “making my living as a writer” thing happily continued.)

So I lost my Dream Job. But I can now say, proudly and without a doubt, that I know exactly what I did there to change, support, and improve the downtown district. And for the record: if I had made the decision on my own to leave (as opposed to being unceremoniously dumped), I would never have left abruptly without notice, and I absolutely would not have left two months before the Downtown SB Holiday Parade – my seventh as a DSB employee (and probably my 16th or so, as volunteer/board member).
 

All this to say that, exactly one year later, I’m starting a new job as Business Liaison for the Downtown Mesa Association. To this amazing world of downtown business districts, I’m happy to say, “I’m back!” And again, to all my friends, family, and supporters, I say, “I couldn’t have done it without you - I love you and I am so very grateful.”  

Managing Change, Once More with Feeling

Before I dive too deep into this blog post, two things: 

*  Yes, it really has been nearly 7 years since my last post. Shame on me.
*  But oddly, my last post is a nice intro to my next post…because once again, I’ve jumped into a big change.

So: Managing Change, Once More with Feeling.


I’ve moved. Packed up the condo, sold it, moved to Arizona. And that is the “in a nutshell” version. The full-on version, well, that will take a few more posts to get through the entire story.



But let’s start with that last blog post. It was indeed my “dream job,” Marketing & Communications Director of Downtown Santa Barbara. 


Working in an office I loved, I was suffused with a sense of pride, of history, and of pure joy, knowing I was working with great small businesses, non-profits, cultural venues and other members of the business improvement district.



As the daughter of a small business owner, I appreciate and support small businesses wholeheartedly.



So when I got dumped (no better word for it, I’ve tried), I was just a bit in shock, but not completely surprised. But it still hurt – how could it not? I’d like to think that it was true, I worked my butt off for that organization and its members. I went through FIVE executive directors in those 6 years, all very different people with different ways of doing things. And frankly, through thick and thin, ups and downs, fires and debris flows, parades and staff changes, I kept it all together. 


So it makes me sad that a small group of people – a VERY small group – decided to let me go. I could go on and on about how difficult 2018 was; how I was really the one person in the office keeping it all together that year, along with the much-appreciated help from an interim ED; how our signature events were just as awesome as ever, if not more so; how the staff was woefully underappreciated and unacknowledged that entire horrible, challenging year.



I could go on…but I won’t. At least not now – I signed an agreement, after all.

Suffice it to say, it was the shove I needed to finally make the move to AZ, to be close to family, to parlay the equity  in my condo into a fabulously perfect home here, with all the amenities (two-car garage! Backyard! Air conditioning! Full size washer/dryer!) I didn’t have in very expensive Santa Barbara. 

So, after 24 years in that city and 22 years in that beloved little condo, I made the leap – a leap of faith, as it turns out. (This is me at the front door of the beloved little condo, taken by Hugo, my realtor. I even bought a new welcome mat to impress potential buyers!)

But all that’s for another day and the next blog. Stay tuned!