SEASON 4 RECAP | Meet Ava Munos, our new Producer for The LoCo Experience + Season 4 Recap + Thanks Alma Arellano!

In today’s conversation, I’m joined by longtime Producer of The LoCo Experience, (and continuing as Operations Manager of many hats at LoCo Think Tank) Alma Arellano, along with our newest employee and incoming Producer of the podcast, Ava Munos!  We dig into Ava’s background a bit - which revolved around competitive dance for years - and explore some of the changes coming for Season 5 of The LoCo Experience.

Also, Alma breaks down our top 5 most-listened episodes of 2024 and we talk about some of the most inspiring - and the most LoCo - experiences shared during season 4. If you’re a fan of the show, you won’t want to miss this one!

Disclaimer - We lost the first hour of our conversation due to a tech glitch, during which Ava shared deeply about the joys and the traumas of her dance career.  We tried to start over and re-create the conversation, but it was admittedly difficult to remember what we’d covered in the lost conversation, and what was still left to unfold in the fresh one.    

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Music By: A Brother's Fountain

Transcript

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just trying to make sure I'm paving the perfect path for myself and, and there's no perfect path there's no perfect way to do anything, but I'm trying at least to make sure I come out of college and I have a, a couple dollars in the bank and a damn idea of what I want to do. So that's where I'm at. In today's conversation, I'm joined by longtime producer of the Loco Experience and continuing as operations manager of many hats at Loco Think Tank, Alma Arellano, along with our newest employee and incoming producer of the podcast, Ava Manus. We dig into Ava's background a bit, which revolved around competitive dance for years, and explore some of the changes coming for Season 5 of The Loco Experience. Also, Alma breaks down our top five most listened episodes of 2024. And we talk about some of the most inspiring and the most local experiences shared during the season. If you're a fan of the show, you won't want to miss this one. Disclaimer. We lost the first hour of our conversation due to a tech glitch during which Ava shared deeply about the joys and traumas of her dance career. We tried to start over and recreate the conversation, but it was admittedly difficult to remember what we'd covered in the lost conversation, and what was still left to unfold in the fresh one. We did our best, and I hope you enjoy. Let's have some fun. Welcome to the LoCo Experience podcast. On this show, you'll get to know business and community leaders from all around northern Colorado and beyond. Our guests share their stories, business stories, life stories, stories of triumph and of tragedy, and through it all you'll be inspired and entertained. These conversations are real and raw, and no topics are off limits. So pop in a breath mint and get ready to meet our latest guest. Welcome back to the local experience podcast. This is a small crew of your host Kurt Baer. Almariano, longtime producer, Almariano, and Ava Manus, the new producer, incoming producer, Ava Manus. And, uh, we just had a technical glitch. We didn't capture one hour or so of conversation. So we're going to, we're going to run it back, be more efficient, recreate it. And, uh, the goals for today are threefold. We're going to talk about some of our favorite episodes from 2024 season. Some of the highlights, we're going to talk about some of the plans we have for 2025, including the video that you see right now. And we're going to talk about, uh, introduce Ava Munoz. I guess to set the stage here, um, You joined the team at local think tank? Yep. In August, late August. The day before my birthday was my first day. The day before your birthday. Yeah, marketing intern slash new podcast producer starting with season five. I'll be editing this podcast, very excited about it. Okay, so One of the ways we started talking about you was that you are a CSU student. Yep. And, uh, in half as much time as last time, let's talk about the process of selecting Fort Collins and CSU as your home. Let's. So essentially, lived in, grew up in California, um, and I wanted to go out of state. Uh, that was my primary focus. I wanted to explore new territory, and then it was up to where, and I'm paying for college, so I didn't want flights to be expensive. I didn't want tuition to be expensive, and I was looking at a lot of snowy places. Honestly, I was looking at Michigan, Oregon and Colorado primarily. Mm-hmm And I toured. Colorado State and I fell in love with it. I came here in the fall. Um, so as we all know, Fort Collins is gorgeous in the fall. Um, I was like, well, I'm going to become a pro snowboarder. I am so excited for this new chapter in my life and it's only a two hour flight. So I was like, yeah, I applied to about 18 schools. Um, didn't tour any of them besides Boulder and CSU. And here we are. And I've loved every second of it. No regrets. Have you, what did you, what would you say is the difference between the culture that you left and the one you came to? So I'd say, here's a great example. I had. And this might be a bit an exaggeration, but I cannot recall a time that I've had the door held for me in California. Like, like, yes, no. Besides working at the Ritz Carlton. Yes. I never, like, if people are walking in front of you and unless you're right behind them, they're just going to walk in. Like in California, you're just, it's extremely materialistic. People are more worried about the brand of your car, what tags you have on your clothes. Like it's all about how you present yourself. And you tell this is a very premium brand shirt. Oh, yes. I broke it out for this episode. Beautiful. Matches me with my orange pants. Matches. Yes. The salmon pants. But yeah, I'd say in Colorado, it's like, is how I felt coming here. It's just a little tinge of marijuana smoke. Exactly, like a tinge of a little Secondhand but yeah, I feel like. California was very fast paced, very materialistic. There's drivers. Yeah. Everybody's striving. Everybody's trying and competing. It's a lot of competition of who's more successful. How much does your dad make? How much does your parents make? What car? And it's like, here, it's like. Nobody gives a shit. It's like, do your own thing. Like, nobody's watching what you're wearing and like, Well, and that's part of why you fit maybe better here. Like, despite your mom being a super successful career woman and having some support from your dad, you couldn't really compete with the real rich kids. Exactly. Like I had a nice home, like, uh, but at the same time my mom tried to implement. Very early on that my brother and I were going to pave our own ways and pay for our own things. If you want a car, you're going to buy it. If you want a job, go get it. If you want this, go get it. Like, but I'm not going to hold your hand past 12 years old, essentially. But yeah, so I chose Colorado because I wanted the seasons. I wanted the change. It's not too far from home, but it's enough where I come here and I feel like I'm in a new world. And I, and I wanted, I wanted an opportunity that nobody here knew who I was. And I got to, I, yes, I got a clean slate and, and literally not a single person from my high school, which is a big high school, went to Colorado State. Yeah, I was the only one. And I was reppin that like no other. Happy to be here. Yeah, Berkeley can have it. Yeah, for real. Um, do you wanna, like, last time we jumped in the time machine already, like, Five years old or something. Do you want to talk about some of that? A little bit of that? Because that was, you were like a second year dancer. Yes. Five years old and that was Yeah, so I, to round me out pretty well of my childhood, heavily into the arts, painting, dancing, sculpting, pottery, um, at three years old, I started dance and at seven years old, I knew I wanted to compete and I wanted to do it professionally as what I thought I wanted to do. Um, unfortunately dancers make no money, so I couldn't do that. And I was never going to Broadway. Um, but I was in theater classes, acting classes. I did ballet, jazz, tap, contemporary, everything, anything that had me on a stage, I was there. I wanted to be. I wanted solos. I wanted, and not in like an ego way. I just wanted to be able to prove to people that I have what it takes and I also just loved. The culture of dance and it's always upbeat and you're always happy and it's such an outlet Because I had a lot my parents divorced when I was six, which is a great time Um, because you don't really know what's going on You kind of just grow up and I don't have any memories of any holidays with them together So all I recall is that they ended and they all went on their separate ways and I just always had two christmases Two new year's eve like it was and it just made sense. It made sense that they weren't together But you know coming with a divorced family did your mom never Never. Never dated much either. She dated a bit. My dad's always dated. Yeah, that man. Oh yes, he's always dating. But my mom was always just like, she wanted to make sure she had A stable home for my brother and I to come home. She never And she knew my dad was going to bring that to the table. So she's like, I'm going to make sure, which honestly, so selfless of her to give up that entire aspect of her life for her children. Yeah. Being raised by a strong single, strong, single strong. So hardworking. I always like was so, it's so admirable how much she put into work, but it was almost, she put so much into work where it's like, You remember you had two kids at home? Yeah, she sacrificed a little bit. She'd come home, and, I mean, we had food on the table, a roof over our heads, like, and I knew, she knew that she was giving up that portion of being home and being there for the kids. Well, and she created a, a very self capable, compared to a lot of 20 year olds I met. Well, I had to learn pretty damn quick what the hell I'm doing and you know, I was making a hundred dollar, a hundred dollar paychecks every two weeks. But I was like, putting in a savings. I started a savings account when I was 14 years old and it's still my bank account now. Really? Yeah, and I still have money going into it from every paycheck Oh, wow, and I just I didn't cash that out to buy your car. Nope. No, that's so cool. Yeah My car was always uh, well, I bought my car for pretty dang cheap. I bought in cash. I saved up for Like a year and a half of working at Oasis, um, which was a Mediterranean wine bar lounge place I worked for a few years. Um, and I, I knew I wanted a Mustang. I knew I wanted like a sports car. I was like, if I'm going to buy my own car, it's going to be a nice car. I didn't know how to drive stick. Didn't know anything. I bought it still not knowing how to drive stick. They had to drive me home, and I watched a YouTube tutorial, and I sat down for hours. And I taught myself, and I stalled six times in a row in an intersection. And had all the cars go around me. But it was still to this day. It's such a fun fact that I self taught how to drive a manual car. I have to say, uh, if Loco Think Tank has a type right now in, uh, terms of employees, it's like overly capable. Self sufficient. For their age. Self sufficient young women. Yeah. Juncture in the moment, anyway. But yeah, so, wait, what did this start with? Nothing necessarily, we were just talking about your car and buying it for cash. Oh, my mom a little bit, yeah. Well, and saving for a house, how much? Yeah. Well, I don't want to ask you what's in your house. Oh, yeah, it's not as much. I've had a take out of that savings of a few times, for sure. But not to buy my car. Um, but, yeah, I I've always been very forward thinking, um, just trying to make sure I'm paving the perfect path for myself and, and there's no perfect path there's no perfect way to do anything, but I'm trying at least to make sure I come out of college and I have a, a couple dollars in the bank and a damn idea of what I want to do. So that's where I'm at. Do you beat yourself up pretty bad when you Don't do good? Oh yeah. Yeah, definitely, like Nobody's ever criticized you like you've criticized you? Yeah, I It's hard to give myself grace of mistakes. Cause I'm always, like, even on simple things, like in the beginning of this job, and I had like sent an email and I had like the wrong link, I would just be like, Oh god, like, how did I not double check? Like, I should have known. But, yeah, I definitely, in my heart, Critique. Yeah yeah. So like from, from seven years old to 17, when you decided to be a yeah, I decided to compete and travel. I was on like six different teams because for every type of dance, like lyrical versus tap, they're two separate teams, but two separate, like whole groups of people. So I was in about five or so groups. and not including a solo, as much as you could, I would get out of school at three and be in the studio until 10pm every single day. Every single day, and imagine How did you get transported to these places? My grandparents Because they lived literally around the corner, Grandma Pam, which she comes in, she comes in later for my local experience, um, but she would help a lot. My brother sometimes helped if he didn't have work during that day. And um, I remember taking like Ubers and stuff to dance or I'd find friends because once I got to like, yeah. 15, 16 people started having cars that were older than me and could pick me up. I always found a way, but it was, it was tough. Like I, I lived at that studio, like Jazz and Taps. That was our studio name. And we would compete every single weekend for like 8am to like, Like 1am when awards were every weekend. Like it was, it was the most I've put into anything in my entire life. Dance was my whole life. I thought I was like going abroad. I was going to be Beyonce's backup dancer. Like, I wanted to be fully immersed in dance. I loved it so much. And then once I entered high school, got like jobs, I was like, Okay, this is not gonna work. My bot like, my knees hurt at 15 years old. I'd wake up and my knees, you could feel you still can now you can feel, like, my joints moving and how achy they are. I went to a chiropractor for four years. That would give me shock therapy. They would shock stimulants into my back and it was horrible. I mean, you're, if you're a dancer, your body is absolutely screwed. Like you can rebuild, but if you're building, If you are building your form from such a young age, and stretching your bones, like my back, I had a position Do you have normal feet? No, my feet are fucked up. I have ugly dancer feet. I'm not pulling out my feet. But, I have, I mean like, bunions and blisters, like permanent blisters, my heels are all like torn up. Cause I did points, so point, you're shoving your foot into a A little shoe that has a platform and you are constantly forced arch, ew. You are forced. Like while you're on your tiptoes you have an arch too? Constantly, arch too, yes. Dang. It is, It is unimaginably painful. Like my body, I'm 17 and I feel like I'm an 80 year old. I wake up and my joints hurt. My bone, my, my knees are destroyed. Like from doing like floor work. Like we'd like roll around on our knees and bruises all my whole leg would be bruised for weeks. Like it was just so, and it was like, damn, I'm getting home at like. 10 p. m. I haven't eaten at all. Like I'm just like I'm just like this is not and I knew because I started Mentally developing and being like, okay, I can't be pushing my body. I'm not gonna survive. I'm my hair's falling out. I couldn't so many side effects to not eating I couldn't sleep like and my mom then finally started noticing and I started going to therapy and she was like Like if you don't want to, if you still want to, I'm not going to let you. And I was not only competing on like six or seven different teams for my competitive out of school, but I was doing varsity dance team at school. So I was juggling both of those. And so officially my mom and I emailed and we were like, I'm sorry, I'm pulling Ava out. Like her body can't withstand this, and she's, she's done. And I you take yourself out of an environment that you've been in your Literal entire life and it's it's a family you create and it's you know It was so hard to just come home from school and just be like what the like what? It feels like you've kind of, you know, Learned a lot about yourself. Oh, yeah. I think we covered a lot of who you were. Do you want to go, we're going to go to Alma. Yes, please. Because we've been chatting Cathy. Let's hear that beautiful voice. I'm sorry.... Uh, she's got some of our stats from last year. The number one most listened to episode? Um, that was Experience 160. Palmer Flowers, um, Tim and Danielle Jordan. Oh, very good. Congratulations, Tim and Danielle. Thanks for sharing. And, uh, the, that was a cool episode. Um, and you should actually listen to it. Because, it's a, uh, It was a few days, we had the scoop. It was like four days after Palmer Flowers was sold to a national publisher. Brand or national carrier that keeps the brand keeps the legacy and they kind of you know That was to some extent their way of like sharing it to the world Probably they had a press release later or something. But anyway, super cool people and a good example of a husband and wife Living and loving within each other's strengths Uh, as entrepreneurs and, uh, one of the coolest parts of that, I, I, cause I've been chasing Tim for a long time to be a part of Loco Think Tank and he's like, well, you know, me and Danielle are kind of the team that makes decisions. And if I had a Loco Think Tank chapter also like in there and what if they disagreed with Danielle? Then what do I do? You know? Yeah. Like can't, that kind of goes against the fabric of our thing. Yeah. So anyway, I think he's wrong. That's sweet though. And I think that they should both just be in a chapter of local think tank, but so it goes Anyway. Love you guys. Budget budget wise, you guys budget wise, but Yeah. You know, plus they just sold Palmer flour, which was kind of their big breadwinner. That's crazy. Cool. And then like a second, we don't have to, yeah. Is there a second place? Mandy Mullen, I feel like that's Oh, episode two of Mandy? That's the next one, yeah. Dang, and she's number one overall still, too. So, Mandy Mullen, one of our longtime Loco Think Tank members, she's run Windsor? So, Santa Catch is Oh shit, that's tomorrow morning. I'm the emcee for the race. Oh yeah! So Mandy has grown from like, Just since I've known her, which is not long, like six up to like 11 or 12, I think 12 now races that she organizes either in, in or around Windsor or, and she also acquired a couple of relays that wild west relay that I took part in and then, um, the flaming foliage. And, uh, so this was kind of our conversation to put together for that. Right. And there's a lot of aspects to races like that. She's a, uh, she's run the Leadville 100 a couple, three times. So that was her look. One of her local experiences. But she like, injured. Oh yeah, she hurt herself with like 38 miles to go. And she still continued. Muscled it out. Oh my god! You should get to know her actually because, and maybe it's not running, but something that, maybe it's lifting or whatever, but something that helps to calm the, uh, wants to do everything monster within your, between your ears. Is kind of part of her persona in life and mental health things. She raises a lot of money for suicide prevention and stuff. Yeah. So, I think you would dig Mandy a lot. And uh, you should probably listen to episode 1 first. Look at my first conversation with her. Where she really goes through most of the, the backdrop. But I think that would be an inspiring one for you. Yeah, good example of a power lady that is sporty. Sporty power lady. Sporty power lady. Sporty power lady. The next, um, over top was 152 Tammy Parker. Oh, the best story that we told the story. Well, maybe not the best story. Who were we talking to? Oh, it was Rick. Gardener yesterday that we told the HR story, wasn't it? Oh, it was the Steven Stein. Even better. Um, so one of our local think tank members, Ava is Steven Stein. Uh, he's the Chick fil A owner and a lot of Alma's friends and, uh, fellow church members, especially have worked for Chick fil A and kind of everybody. A lot of people from a faith background especially think Chick fil a is just like, the busiesness. So anyway, um, I almost started telling Steven this story about, do you want to, do you want to fill in the story for remember, like, what So we were delivering, uh, the Christmas trees. We were at the social. Yeah, we were at the social, but the story that you were telling was, was when we, when I was telling Tammy this story about us. So this is a multi layer story. But the, the, the backdrop is you and I were delivering the Realities for Children Christmas tree back to the headquarters. And, uh, I was asking how your first year of marriage was, how it was being, Alma Arellano instead of Alma Ferrer. Mm hmm. Um, well, I have, like, kind of reflected on that, but, um, so my full name is Alma Christina, and so. Everybody at my church calls me Tina. Oh yeah. We were talking about that first. Okay. Actually that has been like on my mind for a minute that your Instagram says Tina and I'm like, where does that come from? Like, I was like, are you lying? Is your name not Alma? I was like, are you like, okay. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Her resume said Alma and then her email was Christina something, something at Gmail, yeah, yeah. Whichever. Yeah. Yeah, she gets to be, yeah. But, um, Yeah, you get to choose. So, Stephen had said, I'm gonna go, like, blast your name at Chick fil A. And then Chris said, No, you're gonna have to say Tina, cause nobody knows her. Who Alma is. Who Alma is. So then it had explained, like, name stuff. And then that got us to, um, that story. But, I had thought about it that, um, Ferrer, I mean, technically it kind of is Mexican, but, um, it's not like a super known Mexican. I've never, I've never known any Ferreras before, so I would have guessed more like Italian was going to say Italian. I mean, weirdly in elementary school, there was like a Filipino girl that was Ferrera. Really? And when you, like on Facebook, if you search up like anybody Ferreras, they're like Way more Filipinos than Mexicans. They're kind of connected somehow. But, um So I was thinking I haven't changed my name yet. It was like the point. I still pay Alma Ferrer And a little bit of like low key like I don't wanna Not, I'm not losing it, you know? But yeah, yeah, you know what I'm saying? You could be Ferrer Orellano. Yeah, so it's kind of like, oh. But I was telling Kurt, I was like, yeah, that made me realize that like, Orellano is much more Mexican. Yeah. And I was like, oh, yeah, I'm not used to being Mexican. Like, yeah, like, you can read that very easily, though. Yeah, and so, I was like, well, at least it's a cool one. Yeah. Not dissing, but it's not like a super common, like, Gonzales. Yeah. So, Kurt had said that, once I told that to Kurt, Kurt told me, he was like, yeah, like, if I saw that on your resume, it was, Like, not Ariana, but just a more Mexican. Oh, if I realized Ferrer was a Hispanic name, I might not have called you in. Yeah. For a second. What?! I was just like Random, obviously not. Kurt just says whatever he wants. Totally, yeah. So I'm telling this story to this HR consultant, Tammy Parker, about how, like, we were just joking, or having this conversation about How do you like your new last name? How's Arianna? And she's like, well, I kind of like it better than Ferrer because it's a little more obviously Hispanic. And I was like, well, yeah, if I'd have realized Ferrer was Hispanic, I might not have called you for the first interview. And she knows that's baloney, right? And it was funny. Bro, without me, you're dead. Right. The eye roll and whatever else anyway, I digress. Almost less comfortable talking about these things than I am. To me it was not a joke. It was just a thing to say. Um, well, continuing the episode highlights. Okay. Yes. Um, so Tammy Parker, 152, number four, fourth highest. Episode number one 68. That is Julia and Andy. Oh yeah. The leeches. Yes. The, uh, toddy coffee company. Um, do you know that? There's a company in Loveland, Colorado, Ms. Ava, that manufactures the most dominant cold brew coffee system for commercial brewers. No. Like, they couldn't say it, but I'm pretty sure they do Starbucks and Pete's and all the big chains. Why wouldn't they be able to say that? I don't know, they just kind of avoided saying it, yeah. I'd want to flex that. They've been doing that for like, Like since the seventies, they've been selling these cold brew coffee systems. And then they like kept working. It kept working. It kept working. It kept working it. And then all of a sudden, boom, cold brews became like super popular. Yeah. Huge. And now, and they're right here. They employ like. 60 some employees, they ship cold brew commercial and increasingly soon through like even Walmart, you can be able to get a toddy at home or maybe not Walmart, but other places. So check it out. T O D D Y toddy coffee. And they, they have, um, one of the craziest parts of their story. So they're Christians and they are, um, their daughter was, child was diagnosed as probably downs or something while still in utero. And they were like, they were encouraged to abort it like so many times, like so many times. And they were like, no, no, we said no. And, you know, I'll let listeners kind of tune in, but no regret. I guess I would say. Um, to that story. So that was one of the interesting things. Just really, just really great people. The both of them are really, uh, You know what? Andy Leach might be a great facilitator. Cause he kinda does what he needs to. He comes in and out of the business. He takes a lot of mental health time. He's a business enthusiast. It would be a way for him to have a dose of community. But not too much, maybe. Andy, I'm coming for you. He's coming. He's coming. Number five. Yeah, number five. We'll just go to top five. Yeah. Episode 151. Matt Dinsmore. Oh, yeah. Wilbur's. Yeah, Wilbur's. Total beverage. Episode was It was right after the change so that grocery stores could start selling wine. Oh yeah. Yeah, and Wilbur's has been around forever. But he told, you know, obviously the whole Wilbur story, but just the real impact of, like, every liquor store you know has less employees than they wish they had, and pays them less than they wish they could. Right now, whereas Wilbur's used to really, and I'm sure they still do, but now their employees really have to work hard to make as much as they used to because, you know, just the pressure of wine sales and, and expanded beer sales, but especially wine in grocery stores just took a lot. You know, it turns a bigger business into a smaller business, and you're just gonna have less people, which is the way it is. So anyway, that was a, and who knows, you know, I'm a, I'm a libertarian and ish. So is it better for the consumer to just be able to grab your wine right there? Can't say don't buy it sometimes, you know? And so I don't know, but I, I think the message that I would share is like the world needs local businesses more than ever to be anchors for their community and to be the people that donate money to the football team and things like that. So whether it's your friendly neighborhood liquor store or. Whatever, like, if you're going to sway your purchases, do it in a way that tries to benefit the, the competitive small guy. Yeah. Instead of the, the even more competitive big guy sometimes. Yeah. Yeah. Fair. Fair. Alright. Yeah. Well, that was number five. So. Boom. Ava, you get to come back to, you get to come back to machine. Woohoo! Time machine. A little bit scary. Oh, it's the closing segments. Ah, yes. Uh, well, actually, let me set the stage a little bit in, yeah, faith family politics, but I think I really want to start with family because we talked so much about, like, your mom and different things about her career and how inspiring that was to you and whatnot. And uh, so if it's okay, I'd like to just kind of rejoin that. Yeah, so, six years old, parents divorced. Um, and we tried doing the week on, week off thing, you know, where you transfer, and you got your, like, divorced parents duffel bag that you bring to and from. Yeah. And your brother's a couple years older than you? He's two years older, yeah. Dylan. So you're like six and eight? Yes, six and eight, exactly. Um, Dylan's my best friend. I miss him so much. He recently graduated from UNR and is in an entry level supply chain job. And he's almost making six figures the first year out of college. Wow. Honestly, so impressed. I'm so proud of him. He's getting up at 4 a. m. every day for, I'm just so impressed. Anyways. Wow. We were 6 and 8, bouncing back and forth for a few years. My mom finally realizes, like, my dad's just gonna move around. He was very much a gypsy. Could not stay in one house for a year. Bounced around Livermore and just like all these like surrounding towns. Never in Pleasanton, he just bounced around outside of it. What was he doing for work? He worked for Workday and for, uh, Vodafone. Okay. Different times, but he always was in like product sales and people and like sales and marketing. Yes, very much. My dad could sell you literally anything. Do you think people think I'm a schmoozer, Alma? I don't think so. Well, I, well, we sell. Cause a lot of people know me, like you, like when we go out to lunch and stuff, you're like, dang, it's just so many. Yeah. But they don't, hopefully they don't. No. Well, to me, Schmooze is like, I do not want to like, oh, do not let him see me, like type of, to sell me something. Well, maybe that's, well, but, like, but that's a little bit your dad, the way you're describing him. No, my dad is very much, yes. He will try to sell everybody whatever he's got to sell. He's going to bargain you. For anything he won't. And that's why he loves Mexico. My dad primarily lives in Mexico because you can bargain and you could trade and you can try to, you know, dumb down the price. You can just live on the beach and buy shit. And so I bought weed on the beach, or actually in Anstille Ray in St. Lucia, um, for 35 for a nice fluffy quarter. And the, the, and, and that was like my best bargain of the whole time. Yeah. The, the best negotiating I did was some dude trying to sell me like this clump for 80 bucks. And I bought it for 10. Oh! It was like 80. Right. Which, I learned a lot from my dad at that age. But it was on this beach where the beach chairs cost 100 to rent for the day. And the, the, the things cost 2, 000 to stay the night in. Yeah. And uh, so, but, so it's smart for him to test the market. You know, I'm gonna give him 80. But eventually he's like, no, I'm not gonna do it. I'm like, oh, 10. I'll give you 10 for that little chunk. Yeah. Uh. Uh. Anyway, but you literally in an environment like that, where like, what was the, the, the one that I bought for 35. It's like, what is the value to you? Cause I showed him a picture of my like home grow plant in Colorado and described like the Colorado weed culture to him and stuff. I'm like, dude, that's like, Like I could buy an ounce of really nice weed at home for, you know, or half an ounce at least of that. And so I just can't like, I physically, like, I mentally can't like pay you that price, but for, but, but he was like, what, what is the right price? And I think he was satisfied. You know, he had a farmer that sold it to him, or he was a grower. I can't believe he was asking for 80 bucks. That's crazy. And so it was, but that was, so your dad literally could make a living. Oh yeah. Just, like, working somebody for a deal. And for all I know, he could be right now. Working for, working for somebody for a deal and then going and selling that deal around on the same beach. Just up, up and fast. Right, he's just the one that's willing to go and talk to the tourist and get the 80 freaking deal instead of like slinging it to the dude in the beard on the beach. Anyway, I digress. But yeah, so, grew up. Um, single mom, primarily. My brother and I lived with my mom through all of high school. Um, and when I turned 18, she decided to move to Tahoe, which is way up north into the snow. Um, she got a nice Well, and you were resetting, right? Yes. I quit dance, um, after And at the time, my mom was selling the one, the single one place in my entire life that has been stable. My dad always bounced around. My mom always said, we will never move from this house. This is, this is your safe grounds. You can always come home here. There will never be an issue. Then she decided to change that. I was like, you are taking the one place that I feel safe and you're moving five hours north. To a place, so I will no longer ever have a home here in Pleasanton again. Wow. Where I grew up, where I know everybody, where my neighborhood was family. Like, it felt so hard, and I pray my mom's not listening to this, she takes it very personally, and she apolog But, but I could not stop her from taking that opportunity. I mean, she was gonna be, like, director, and like, this incredible position with great money. And she's always wanted to retire in, uh, In the mountains, and she grew up in Tahoe. She grew up there, so she knew. You were self sufficient already. Yeah, and, and I was also moving. I was coming to Colorado, but for those five months that she was trying to sell that home, and I literally was living out of my car, and living out of friends homes. And had absolutely no stability, no, no place to call home. It was the hard I was trying to apply to colleges and apply for tours, and my mom was she had to go up to Tahoe every other week, so she was driving five hours every other week, or ten hours, to and from, and staying up in the hotel, and and my brother was off in college and I was living. Out of a staged home for months. I kid you not I would have to wake up and make the bed and put all the pillows Exactly. It was like I was living in a fake home. Like yeah, I hid I hid in the closet Yeah, it was really tough and my mom does not know that I slept in my car a lot Like because she like assumed that i'd have friends but like I didn't like always just being like can I still sleep on your couch? Like I felt like a burden so I just stay in my car And it was so hard And I didn't wanna bring on more stress about,'cause she was trying to sell this damn home and find a new home and help me with college. Like it was, it was so much for my mom and I at this time. Yeah. And you didn't wanna put anything more on her. And I didn't wanna put anything and I already had a lot of things that like, you know, teenager stresses and, right. Well you were morning dance. I had prom, I had prom, I had, I had all these things I wanted to do. Like it was just like a lot of things like that. And I could not put that more on my mom. She was stressed about selling her car and getting, it was just so much change. And I was like, I got to get the hell out of here. Get me into Colorado. I just want to be in my dorm. I want to have a place. Bed to sleep in, like, wow. And it sounds like it was homeless and I wasn't, my mom would've paid for hotels and stuff, but like I, but this is an escape hatch kind of from a new, different life. And essentially I had to learn how to, are you gonna go back next summer? Not to California. I will probably never stay in California again besides this winter vacationing. Yeah, vacation wise I will, but. I, I don't see a future for myself in California. I had my time in California. I visited all areas of California. It's a new chapter in my life. I see a lot more for me here in Colorado. Part of me also wants to visit the East Coast, but until I have sufficient funds for that, I will be right here. But California is in the rear roof for now. Yeah, it's in the past and, and It was sad leaving, and I felt like a lot of my life, like I was leaving in the dust, but at the same time. I kind of wanted to, I was like, I don't, there's a lot of memories and a lot of baggage that comes with California. Something I think I'd like to, to bring to light maybe is that as I listened to your story that you felt a little bit probably abandoned by your mom at the end there, and I'm sorry for that, but she hustled for like 15 years to make sure, to make sure you guys had everything you needed. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, um, and was your example of, like, how a lady boss does her business? Yeah, my mom taught me at a very early age that I am fully capable of anything I set my mind to, and I know that's a very common phrase. But quite literally, uh, She taught me that I can do hard things and I watched her do the hardest shit and, and the way that I feel of like abandonment and just like damn like I was only 17, 18 and I had to figure out what the fuck I was eating for dinner, how I was getting to school. Like this has proved to me that I don't, I haven't really been parented and I felt like I've, I've, I've been well off without it. Well, it's cool that your brother became your best friend after being your perfect friend. Yeah, and it all started because of illegal substances. For real? Yeah, I saw him hitting a vape when I was like, 15, 16 and I was like, Oh, I got shit on you now. Oh, and he was like, swear, like, just try it. Try it. And I was like, no, I'm telling mom, you and like, and like, we created like, yeah. And we created like a, like a bond over like the secrecy that we had over it. And I felt cool. Cause he was letting me in on something and right. Literally because of that, we became friends. Was it. A positive or negative thing for you? You had never been high before. I, I didn't, I'd never tried after I couldn't, I didn't even know how to properly inhale. I was just coughing. You just didn't, you just had something to bond over virtually. Yeah. And you didn't rat him out. Yeah. I didn't rat him out until he saw like, okay, you can be the cool little sister I want. And I saw, okay, you're allowing me. Wow, so then my brother and I became best friends and I love him to death and I'm so thankful that I have a sibling to be that close with because I want I have so many aspirations for the future of family traditions and things, I want to You're a blank canvas. Yeah, exactly. To some extent. Yeah. So let's talk about, um, actually can we take it just a like a two minute break? I need to pee so bad. Yeah, same. Okay, Um, but I was saying, like, I, My work, like, my, like, church and everything, like, I've never been around sucky men. Right. Or that's not, like Like, you've seen some men that didn't really step up like they could have, or whatever, but You've never been around sucky men? I mean, like, obviously in the regular, the world, yes, but, um Like, in your personal life, you didn't? Personal life, no. No, not super, um, so like, yeah, like my church, like I grew up in church like a lot. So it's like as a kid, my favorite day was Sunday because I go with the little kids and Sunday school and whatever. But, um, yeah. And like Kurt was saying, like, oh, well, maybe there's like stuff I don't know and what if they are saying, and I don't think that's true. Like, for my church, you know, I speak for my church and like my culture and stuff. And I know a lot of them and their testimonies are that they were. And like, that's a big deal. And obviously our culture is like, it's, it's like, Three days a week, uh, to church, and everybody And if you're not living up to that kind of expectation, plus some volunteering, plus some whatever Every single person does something, or, nobody gets paid, like, I'm Unfamiliar with like that side of churches, but we all do that because we want to do that Nobody's forced to do it. Nobody's paid to do it Yeah, you want to serve and they all do that and it's just such tight knit and we're all each other's family So even if there was somebody that was sucky, it's like Uh, you, like, fix yourself, kinda? Yeah, yeah. If somebody's beating their wife, they aren't showing up to church three days a week. Like, the interlocking circles about people that go to church three days a week and people that beat their wife, like, that's a super tiny circle. But it'd be, it'd be like a big, like, Almost like a full church effort or like yeah Part of it is like at least now generation wise like obviously all the current young men are being taught Yeah, they're being Stuff but it's even as girls where it's like We have semi pretty high expectations. Yeah. Slash seeing some really great men. It's kind of like Yeah, even though acknowledging that some of them have been bad in the past. Like, that's one thing I've noticed about, like, they're real about the temptations of being gay. Being a man, being a wife, being a husband, the shortfalls, the opportunities, whatever. But, like, so that, yeah, I'm like in a different I know, we have, we have, it's actually like incredible to me how different Alma and I am. Your life experience to this point. Like, completely, like, on like crazy spectrums. Like, we grew up so different. But you're both Cali girls. Yeah. Hey. Hey, Cali girls. We love it. But like, I'm so far from, like, like, not religious, like, at all, cause I never grew up with it, like, it was never, I've maybe been to church once for a donut. Like, I, and I, and I'm not kidding you, my dad drove us to church to grab donuts and leave. Like, how disrespectful is that? Oh, damn! I'm serious, I'm serious, I remember it so vividly. Sounds like we're talking about the faith segment of your life, young Ava. Oh yeah, we could, we could, like, Might as well jump in. What kind of donuts did you steal from the churches? Uh, powdered. And they were amazing. uh, yeah, I really did not grow up Super it was just never I didn't even know really what like religion was for a long time I thought everybody was Christian like because I was told I was Christian. So I was like, I don't know what that is Never went to church. I didn't know anything about it. Like don't even know that means and my dad always would say the phrase I forgot like what it was about but he'd always be like, well, you need a little jesus in you and i'd be like What does that even who's that? So he had a little bit of background Like never yeah, but yeah, where does he come from? Pleasanton, California. My dad went to my exact same elementary, middle, and high school. I had a professor, not a professor, a teacher that taught my dad and me. Old as rocks. Like, actually. So he was from there too, or whatever. Yes, he was, and same with my mom, they met in high school. They went to homecoming together. But it sounds like he had a faith background, at least a little bit. A little bit, yeah, definitely. But your mom not as much? I literally never talked about that with my mom. And so, what do you, like, when you hear the word faith, is it almost, like, So my mom is extremely spiritual. She believes in manifestation and she believes in being in tune with your body and mind. With, I was six, she would do the whole home remedies. Like she'd be like manifest that you're going to be better. Tell yourself you're going to be better and you will. And part of me does believe that now and just like putting off like good energy and like constantly just no longer. I used to be such a negative, like this sucks. Like I'm so mad about that. And now I'm just like, Well, I'm grateful that I'm able to take this test. I'm grateful that I'm able and like, I'm, I've been given all these, so. Faith wise, like, I just don't know, like, I don't really know much, like, I mean, like, I believe a hundred percent in a, a, a bigger, something. I don't know if that's God, I don't know if that's, whatever, God is a woman, like, I don't know. But I, I didn't know very many people that were in, like, church, like, very, like, in that environment, and going to church, and, like, went through, like, I didn't know what communion was, or confirmation. Yeah, confirmation is a thing where they like teach you how to do stuff. Yeah, I don't, I still don't know much about it. I could be more informed, but at the same time not a single girl I love with goes to church. Really? Yeah, which is like, part of me like feels like ashamed for it, but at the same time I'm like, I don't even know what I'm ashamed for. One thing you would be shocked by is how many good looking young Christian men there are at my church. Uh, just saying. Anyway, I digress, um, because you already got a boyfriend. Didn't know it wasn't that. Is he the same? He's got no faith background at all? He has more faith than I do. Are they Catholics? But they know You don't, you don't even know, like, what the difference between Catholics and Protestants is. A Catholic is a portion of the Christian. They were the, the Catholics were, you want a quick primer? Like a 4 minute primer on faith? Ooh, not 4 minutes, but yeah. Um, well hopefully it don't take 14, but we'll get to it. Um, so, so, Jesus died like, it's AD, right? After death. Nothing really happened for 150 years, these guys wrote down these books, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, etc. And then Paul, this dude, Paul became, he was like a persecutor of Christians, and then he became like a follower. Just in time to write a bunch of books before the Romans could Like say mandatory Christianity from here. And so some early Roman emperor, not early, but like in the 350s or something was like, Hey, everybody be Christians. And it spread throughout, but they kind of branded Christianity with Like a bunch of pagan religions and different kind of things to make it tasteful to everybody. Uh, but Jen would do it anyway. Dark ages, bad times. Like, sapped everybody from all the money. The Catholic Church was like the boss of the world, literally, for like, Hundreds of years came out of that finally Martin Luther was a Roman yeah, he puts him on blast and he writes like 99 reasons that you guys suck and that became the start of the Protestant the Lutherans the Baptist the all the other kind of Um, Presbyterians, the Methodists, the, the, the pilgrims and the Puritans. Cause after the Catholics like, cause the Catholics were like, Hey, if you got enough money, your sins don't matter. Stuff like that. Yeah. Alma's pretty knowledgeable. And then it came to America and all these Protestant churches exploded into like 200 different types of which Alma's little church is the voice of Tabernacle, but that's the message. Yeah. So. What? Different, like, denominations, like, within that. They all believe the same thing of, like, Jesus. So what, what separates them? What's the differentiator? Kind of just Well, there's, like, Trinity versus, uh, like, God, Jesus, Holy Spirit. Like, they're all the same person, or no, they're not. So, like, that makes a different branch. See, that's what confuses me. Yeah. Are they the It's super confusing. Yeah. We don't need to Right. But. But see, my, my biggest thing is the, and the only like, cause I've talked about a lot, like, meeting in college. But the point is, let me get to the point. Get to the point. So the point is, out of all, Catholics and non Catholics, is that people suck, they're inherently sinful, and that sinfulness separates them from the world. non sinful creative force that created the world and everything in it. So that's my question. So keep listening for a second. And that we, the, the way to have forgiveness and relationship with the positive creative force is to give ourselves grace through confessing and being forgiven by the, the Jesus Christ figure that was sacrificed though he was sinless. In the heart of the Jewish face was that something sinless had to be sacrificed to save people. So they would kill like doves and rams and different things. So there always had to be a sacrifice because we suck. So we have to kill our own best animals and burn up our own best animals. Parts of the harvest for like generations. The Jews had this belief of this Yahweh God that needed to be sacrificed to, and they became like really some of the most successful people still are. And they were always looking for this Messiah that was prophesied for hundreds of years, which according to the Christians was this person of Jesus Christ who became the sacrifice. He like took all the sins of the world, present, past, future of all humans, And was strung up on a cross. That's why we all wear crosses and died. And like through belief in that sacrificial action, we're saved to be able to have a relationship with, with the God, the creator of the universe. That's the, that's the big story. And then how to get there has become like 160 different paths. Yeah, that's what, that's what's so confusing to me is like, we, Almost all are under the same like general belief, but it's like a million different passages in like, to wait, like, it's just like, yeah, it's overwhelming. Well, and that's, you know, like for me, I kind of hold it a little more loosely. Yeah. Um, and in contrast, almost has like a particular, there's a, I would say very much a prophet, like there's, there's prophet figures and, and her faith has a particular prophet they think is extra smart. Yeah. About Christian faith. Um, I grew up in this, so like, it was just kind of like, okay, great. That is what it is, I guess. So even for me, it's like, I have no idea. Never been to kind of like, no idea what everybody else believes. Like, that's crazy. Yeah. But, um, yeah, so we are specifically non denominational. So saying like, whatever the Bible says, it's like a hundred percent the Bible. Um, and so whatever the Bible says goes. Is that what you're saying? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But, um, I guess to summarize, um, we believe that prophets, well, they were sent in the Bible, like, you know, there's different prophets, Jesus was a prophet, kind of, um, and so for our current time, um, we believe that there is also supposed to be a prophet sent. And so we believe that that was William Aaron Branham, which he was from, like, the Bible. I'm like early 1900s. Yeah Late 1800s, early 1900s. So like 19, I think he died in like 9? I'm like really bad, like maybe 1964, 16? Yeah. But, um, he basically was like, Okay, Pentecostals believe this, that's not right, but this part is, and kind of did like this combination of all those little things. He did the best of the best, kinda. Like that stuff. What's good slash a little some of I mean of his own prophecy, too and I mean a prophet is basically kind of like a visionary a megaphone like Like hey, I'm God Ava. Tell this to everybody and then you could be like God told me. Yeah. Well, yes And the actual word prophet is actually more accurately someone who kind of sees more clearly than most everybody else Okay. And they're given the gift of foresight so that they can prove it to the other people. Um, and so like I've told people, even in this podcast that I'm a prophet, like I sometimes see things more clearly than other people. Like I'm a junior, junior, junior level, you know, but God has given me the gift of kind of foresight and understanding, um, more than some people. So anyway, future prophet. Very, very. It's a pretty small segment. Technically, it's like, worldwide. But, it's such a weird And I'm, our church is kind of a little bit the same, in that we try not to pay much attention to what the big church says, or whatever, we try to pay attention to what the Bible says, and we try to structure our leadership around kind of that notion. Okay. So. Yeah. Uh, we're both kind of of mind that the, the 160 different paths through the Christian lens to God is kind of boop ha, I suppose. It's probably a fair statement. Kim had told me a joke about it at the social where, um, Of like, Catholic, it's like, in Catholic school, it's like, okay, do you wanna have a like, you have an issue, you wanna talk to God, like, first, you need to talk to this person, and then, then this other person, then that one, and then only if you really have to, and then say six Hail Marys, and two, then you can bother God. So, it's like, we're like, we're a little more, just go talk to God, yeah, talk to Jesus. Yeah. That's fair. Um, so that's our faith perspective and, uh, you're invited to either or, or churches anytime. Uh, bring your friends if you want to. Part of me like wonders, like if I were to grow up in more in that environment, like Well, you would worry less, you would worry less. Like that's, that's was part of where I was going in that first conversation. Just that, that like, trust God, he's got it figured out. You don't have to like freak out. And, and like, I believe that that spiritual force that your mom feels and it's like the, the way the universe is pulling her to be or whatever, that's God's will in many cases, you know, sometimes it's Satan interrupting, but generally if you're like in the flow of God's will, you'll feel. Better. And if you push against it, you'll feel. Awkward and constricted and whatever. And in whatever way that is in a lot of ways. And so like that, you know, don't worry, be happy. That kind of thing. That's just a trust in God. Yeah. Um, in a lot of ways, it sounds funny, but it's like that notion of don't fret too much. Um, and so, anyway. Anyways. Yeah, no judgment for not having investigated or found anything yet, but also an invitation to, like, for me it was like a four year process, probably, of Both my own self investigation and some relationships randomly popping around me, including, like, probably like a year before I met Jill, there was like this, um, people that started talking to me about it and stuff, and, like, I went to church one time when I was in Worthington before I moved here, and they were like, So excited to have a new person visit their church full of old people. They like asked me to stand up and Like yes, like well, I'm never coming back here Anyway, I digress politics we did family faith now politics Guys, politics, politics, politics. All I gotta say on politics is that both, both of them sucked in numerous ways. Both big parties, you mean? Both parties, yes. Or both candidates. Both candidates. Mind you, I'm coming from California, I'm coming from the most left winged country People you will ever meet. Well, Kamala crushed Colorado. Colorado was the only state where the Democratic ticket made progress versus the Republican ticket from 2020. Like, and the thing is, I'm not super knowledgeable. I try, but at the same time, anything I'm seeing is coming from media that is just TikTok. It's just TikTok, Instagram, like Facebook, like it's all coming from like wrong sources. It's all misinformation. I originally before this debate would say that I'm more Republican than I am. Oh really? I, I say I'm very much in the middle though cause I believe in, in gun rights. Like I want to have a gun in my home. A hundred percent. I dig it. Yep. Um, abortion. Free speech? What do you think about free speech? Of course, of course. I think abortion, you should not be having an abortion in the third trimester. Maybe not even a second. Maybe not even a second. Like, all right. I You're actually a middle of the road And I think the left takes it way too far. The truth is that most people, hopefully most parties across the world, not just our country, but they want the best for the people of that nation, right? And it's just how to get there. Yeah, I understand that. Actually, I did not vote for Joe Jorgensen in favor of Kanye instead. Because Joe sucked. Like, she was just not a very good I don't know who that is. She was a female that won the Libertarian Party ticket in 2020. Was there a Libertarian Party this year? Gary Johnson was 20, yeah, a freaking dude that was all about trans rights or some bullshit. Chase something joke boy. It's so hard for me because Yeah, he was not a Libertarian or whatever you're talking about, Chase. If you want to look me up, if you want to be on my podcast. Yeah, let's have you on. Let's talk. Yeah, yeah. Have I talked, have I told you my, uh, my, my vegetable plant joke in that? No, no, you haven't. I don't think so. I don't think I've heard that either. Uh, with regards to Kamala becoming the nominee. Mm hmm. Oh. The, uh, the vegetable made way for the plant without a vote to save democracy. What? Because Joe Biden was a vegetable, Kabo was a plant, uh, without a vote to save democracy. I can't believe they hid that he was stupid for so many years. Right? Well we knew it in 2020. Like, he was already showing a lot of signs of dementia then. Oh yeah. Oh poor guy. I hope he's like, on the couch, like, eating ice cream, like, fine. What is, um, Hunter's got a pardon though, so he's not going to prison. And usually it's for like something that you've actually been convicted of, but For Biden's kid, it was basically, well, he tax evasion, uh, got a gun license when he was a drug addict, different things. He would maybe spend a couple, three years in jail for it. But what he actually did was milked Ukraine for, uh, 30 billion in China for a bunch of money. And like, we're in this Ukraine war as a payback to Ukraine for making Biden's family rich, basically. And so there's a lot of potential, but Biden's pardon of his son became basically for anything you've done from 2014 to 2024. You are absolved. This is the first time anybody has ever had a pardon like that though, where it's anything you've actually been accused of, convicted of, done, or not done, or whatever. That's like bullshit. Oh yeah, after saying he wasn't going to do it. Yeah, okay, that's what I saw, that he said he wasn't going to and then he did. But not only did it, but did it in a way that was like, like a whiteboard, like even if he killed 10 people and they were, and they were found buried in Hunter Biden's backyard, if it happened between the dates of 2014 and 2024, they could not put, do any legal action against him. Anything he's done in the last 10 years is absolved. That's like the power of the Pope. That's why the Catholics, that's why the Catholics sucked. And it's kind of why, like back in the day, anyway, we're talking too much. Um, the loco experience before we talk about Five. Okay. It's not that crazy, but buckle up. So this was summer going into 2020. Can you tell I've prepared in 20, 20, 23, I have practice in my car. Cause there's a lot of aspects to this story. So it was 2023 going into my sophomore year of college. So I just finished freshman year, just a year before we met you. Yes, exactly. It was upcoming my birthday. End of August. That's like when you go back to school. It's always like my birthday then school So we my grandma who is a hypochondriac. She's the healthiest person I've ever met in my life She is going to live longer than my father a hundred percent She but she's paranoid about everything. She's paranoid about everything. So she announced what an interesting influence She probably had on your in your life. Yes I'm also hypochondriac because of her like I always I will not go to the hospital for anything She implemented my brain that like If something's wrong, there's something behind it, and there's something Sometimes it's worth investigating. Yeah, but not always, and she, she takes things way too far. However, she decided to pay So, it's my, this was the Manuse clan, so my dad's side of the family. It's his mother. He has two sisters. So it's the three of them, and my grandma paid for all three of them and all their families, including us, to go to Hawaii. Oh wow. To Maui. Okay. She spent over 40, 000. Yeah. On our condos, our flights. Like 20 people ish almost, or 15? Like 15, 15, yeah. Cause yeah, it was three families with like three kids and like some significant others. Yeah, yeah. And this is my favorite side of the family. No offense, mom. My dad's side. I mean, they're just, they drink, they have fun. But I have two cousins. They're the fun partiers. They're the social, and we're, the Manuse clan is known in our family. Like we are the fun ones. Like my dad's sisters, they're, they all went to the same college. My, My dad's closest sister was a sweetheart of his frat. They are like this. That's how I want my brother and I to be. Like, it's just the most tight knit. Like, my cousins are my exact same age, so we're all best friends with my brother. So we're all stoked, because the last time we went on a family excursion, it was like when we were 12, and we couldn't drink, and we weren't into it. So now we're all in college. We're like, this is gonna be amazing. We decided to go to Maui. So we get there. And all is well, we get these oceanside, oceanfront views, we're like having a ball, we go out to a magic show, and so Maui, we're staying in Lahaina. Yeah, the one that burned. Yeah, Jill and I were there last May. Keep that in mind. So, Lahaina, August, early August, um, and there's a lot of history in Lahaina. Fleetwoods the magic play like the we went to the magic we went to the oh i can't explore that yet we went to a magic show we we went snorkeling like we had a lot of excursions planned so second day rolls around having a ball our power goes out We don't really think much of it. We're like we're on vacation. We don't need our phones like whatever like we'll go out to dinner We don't need to cook. We want like a short little grocery run like didn't get that much And so we go snorkeling yada yada yada now dinner time comes and all the restaurants are closed because the power's out And we hadn't even thought about going to the lobby and asking we were just like it's gonna turn on like whatever Slowly phones start to die And so like my dad like puts aside his phone and my brother's phone like he's like Let's just keep battery on that in case but since we have no power we have no service so we cannot contact anybody So our first question is how much tequila do we have? My dad's like let's ration out our tequila Let's make sure we have enough for at least another day Like the power will come on. We don't have to worry about it So we go out to cook taquitos on the barbeque, cause that's our only source of heat. And my dad recognizes somebody and he goes, is that Matt Anthony? From Van Halen, the drummer from Van Halen is also at our resort. And also cooking on the, on the barbecues outside. We're just like, weird coincidence, I take a, insert picture, I take a picture with him. And we're like, and we're just like, laughing about the fact that there's no power. And we're just like, all like, phoneless. And we're just all in Hawaii. We're like, what's going on? So we go to watch the sunset and it's this bright red. orange sunset Insert picture. Yeah, some might understand what's happening next. We're like, wow, it's so beautiful We don't really think much of it next day comes around. We're on day three of no power. We have no food. No phones We're like, okay We need to go to the grocery store like something needs to happen right now Like we're just kind of like coasting along like is this power coming back on? So a key side story my dad decides every vacation we've ever gone We always either get a limo to the airport, or we get a bougie ass rental car. I don't know why, he just wants to ride in style. And it's fun, it's fun. So we get, my dad and I decide, we're gonna go find a market. We don't have phones, we're using a map, insert picture. My dad has a map. And we're in this bougie nice red convertible, like, soft top, top off. And we're driving trying to find this market, we're just trying to go along like these roads. We're like, we'll find something. And we're driving. There's this huge tree that's crashed down, and we're like, in the middle, and there's no cops, no nothing around it, it's just a tree smashed, there's nobody out in the streets, and we're like, damn, there must have been a storm, like, there must have been a crazy storm, that's why the power's out. So we, we go around the tree, we go to a market, and there's these hundreds of people crying, sobbing, so much distress, we're like, holy shit, like, this storm must have been bad. The Lahaina fire was a mile away, walking distance from our resort, still actively burning. And we had no idea because nobody could contact us. We had no way of anybody telling us. So this fire was burning and we had this resort. Absolutely. The picture that I insert right now, that picture, that sunset was people's homes burning. Well, sure. And we're talking to these people. They're sobbing my arms, I my dog just died, I just lost my father, like, he was sleeping, people jumping out of their hotel bedrooms into the water to swim to safety, meanwhile, this fire nobody has came to this fire, it is still active, we could see it, like, from our resort, you could see the flames, like, and we were like, we gotta get out of here, like, we're gonna die, my mom, like, my dad was like, we cannot tell grandma, hypochondria, like, Terrified of a cut, like, if she hears there's a fire going on, oh my god. And so my dad and I are just like, we can't get food, all these, like, everything was down, the registers were down, like, people were just like, I can't believe that nobody gave you any notifications. I'm like, there's no siren, like, or anything, I'm like, how did we not, the lobby, literally, we were the first people to know, nobody at this resort knew. You couldn't smell it, you couldn't even smell it, and it was only like, I kid you not, you guys. You could, I could have ran to where there was a, like, burning people. 105 people died. 105 people died. A mile from us. Oh, more than that. And, and people were like, it was, and, Meanwhile, we were worried about, like, tequila and, and burgers. We were like, we were trying to think about, like, what food we're getting, and these people are like, I don't have a home. Like, my For a couple days, your power was out, and you didn't know. Days, and we had no idea. How in the world? And, and get this, all the road to the airport Burned everything around it burned. We cannot, there's no planes. No, no taxis, nobody. Oh yeah. Like everything. Because that's the way, yeah. There's one way, one way we stayed right where you stayed. We stayed a little north of there. We scuba dive or snorkeled in that Vegas north. And so we go back and we're like, we're trying to break the news like as best po like, we're trying to be like, there's, you know, disaster happening. We gotta get out. No flights. No flights. We can't, we can't get to the airport. We're like, what the hell do we do? Like my dad's freak because we can't contact anybody. The only source, cause at the moment, like, you're wondering like, well, how do you even see the resort there for a while? See what happens. But we were like, this, this fire's not out. Like it was actively burning as we were like, cause the people that we're talking to were like, it's going to hit my house in like 10 minutes. Like, can you guys please help? Like we were like, like people were actively trying to save their whole livelihood and they still have a man made right at. Oh, no, not at all. And we donated a lot of money. Like I personally donated 300. I just, um, it was the most money I had at the time, so not a lot, but I was just like, I, I just, I held like a woman who had literally lost her entire, like her fucking husband died and it was just the most, like, I was the most out of, I didn't know even like how to, I had never, Been in a situation where I was actively dealing with something, like grieving and like, and in shock and, and just trying to find help. And my dad and I were just trying to help everybody, but like, how can you even, like, and like, we're trying to give people rides, places, and it was just so, and we finally got back, and we got flights, and, and get this. I was actively going into living to my sorority and if anybody knows anything about a sorority They are not lenient with jack shit. You are checking in at this time. Your foot better be entering this home at this time I would think like I was at the Maui fires Oh, they did not give a singular. I emailed them and I was like, I don't know if I can't get a flight They're like We'll just make sure you're in by this time because if not then we're gonna have to give you a deposit blah blah blah You're not gonna have a room and I was like, I'm trying to survive right now I haven't eaten in a day like and so the day I got back from that Oh, meanwhile, we have no technology. My phone's dead. Every phone's dead. We don't have anything. My mom thinks we're dead She's seeing on she has a picture of the news Lahaina fires. You're part of the burn area. You can see our resort in the, in the, in the birds view but, yeah, so, my mom essentially thought that we died. She had been spamming my phone. She was so worried. She got us our flights out because we couldn't. And it was just the most, and coming from that, The night I landed in Reno, got to Tahoe, slept in my bed, I woke up and drove 18 hours to Colorado. To get there just in time for your sorority pledge? The most miserable. I drove through the hours of the night. I started hallucinating, thinking I was seeing things. You had like three five hour energies at the same time. Oh my god, it was horrible. It was horrible. And I got here, and going from, you know, grieving with people and holding their babies while they cry about losing their families to Like it was just like what the hell am I doing here it felt so fake It felt so I was just like this is not good. Yeah, this feels so horrible What interesting? Yeah, that was a good experience. It was an experience to say the least like We'll never put you through any drama like that. I And I was like I don't know if anybody knows anything about Lahaina, but Fleetwoods is a magician, it's like a magic place and so much history behind it like it goes back hundreds of years and we were the very last people to ever see a show at Fleetwoods and like something about that just like Yeah, we spent, we spent a day and a half and including our last most of our last day in Maui at La Haina. And so, yeah, it was crazy just to be, we were five months away, you know, you were like right there. That's so insane. I want to pull up, pull up a picture of where my resort was compared to where it was burning. I mean, you'll see in the picture of like, it's a fire in the air. We thought it was a beautiful sunset. We were probably another few miles north is where we stayed. But, um, Alma, I want to talk about, uh, Why is Ava the producer of the podcast now and what do we have planned for 2025? Yeah, um, I have a lot of work to do, um, but loco wise, but, um, I think it's because she's passionate about it is what I would think. Yeah. Yeah. I'm almost like, cause I don't want to do that. Somebody willing to do it and I didn't want to do it. Well, I've always been like, I'm just doing what I can and I only know what I know. And if somebody wants to put Is passionate or likes it, like. Yeah. I have, you know. And I do. Want that, give that opportunity. Basically, but. Well, and she's a showman in some ways. Like, you want to make sure everything works good. And Ava wants to, uh, put on a great show. Yeah. Again, this doesn't mean that you have to be the star. want to make sure everything looks good. So what's going on in, uh, in season five? Yeah. Yeah, uh, full video. When all the cameras run the whole time. Yeah. One camera left, good job little doodle, you're our OG. Yeah, um. And then, so, studio wise, um, technically the same, but tech wise, Ava's desk, which is outside of the studio, is the one that runs everything. I'll insert a picture. Yeah. And, um, Insert picture here. And the full video, um, post production, that'd be a lot, so, Ava's gonna be here during the recording and while it's live recording, kind of, manually switching, manually switching cameras and to kind of save some effort, time on that part. Will you have a microphone in the future so we don't have to yell through the wall? Maybe we should get a longer cord, or uh, headphones. I have them on. Oh, you do? You can listen to it from your computer while we're talking? And it's pretty loud still. Yeah. I'm loud enough anyway. Yeah. Yeah. I hear like the delay. I hear like you talking and then it going to my headphones. Oh, that's fun. But yeah, there's, there's a lot changing, I feel. But technology wise, I feel like there's a lot changing and there's gonna be new segments. So we're gonna be adding so random questions kind of thing fine I think burp to fart ratio should be but also like business related things. Oh, also, we're gonna ask advice for a future generation Yeah, I like that a lot We have so many inspiring What have you learned because you haven't been able to be here during the podcast, but you've been like editing and listening for good clips and stuff. Is there anybody that in particular you thought was just a really either thoughtful or endearing moment? Yeah. I mean, numerous. I, okay. Matthew Fugate had like, he went through a lot. It's honestly so admirable for somebody to come from such a low and to pull themselves out of that And just like like that is two separate lives you've lived And like most people cannot admit to pulling themselves out of such a bad habit completely Yeah. And like, starting new. He's got that mixture of confidence and humility. Yes, and that's, yeah, I admire that a lot to be able to talk about that openly and to have no shame and just to, and to speak it how it is and not try to sugarcoat it. And like, he gave some real stories, like the two broken arms. I was like, yeah, that was crazy. Yeah. Um, who else? I feel like there's a, there's a lot. I mean, yeah. That's okay. I think it was a recent episode and worthy and you know, I think it's relevant even to your story You know, you gave your all to this big dance journey and stuff and yes, you've mourned its passing But you showed that you had everything you needed and to some extent that can be your low point in some ways Yeah, that relates to Rick Gardner how he gave up bull riding and how he Explained that I related to this story so much when afterwards he was like, I can't even look back at it. I need to just start new and start my new focus because mourning it is just going to hurt so much. I might as well just start a new path. That's how I felt. I was like, cause I tried to go to competitions and support my friends and it was just sitting in the audience watching what you used to do felt like the biggest stab to the heart and just, I was just like, I felt so bad. Sick. I was like, I can't walk. Like if you see girls dancing on TV now is even a little bit harder. Oh, I watch like Dancing with the Stars and stuff and it's just like, it's just, I'll always have that part of me that's just like what it could have been like if I kept going like, but at the same time, like I, it was a passion, it's a hobby. But when you make your passion and hobby your work, it's, it takes the love out of it. But like taking that and that being your full time, everything would just probably take the passion out of it. I think do it for joy instead of do it for money. Yeah, definitely. Better for most. Definitely. All right. Well, that's it. Um, I hope both of you enjoyed this conversation. Alma, is there anything that you would have for wisdom for the next generation to close this episode or for like, like if you work your way up in, uh, in Alma's, uh, like managerial, uh, jobs and things like for me, it's always like trying be eager to show up. You don't know how to do something, like, try it. Like, change, you know, a lot of people don't like change, a lot of people want to, you know, and I'm just like Embrace the change. It's gonna happen. Um, and that's like my whole thing of even working here is like, I don't want to do none of this. I'm gonna figure it out though. We're gonna try it. See what happens. Full video? I don't know. Let's do it. Yeah. So, yeah. I feel like, um, I don't know. I mean, I want to say it's like, the generation, the next generation doesn't want to try things, I think. No, but people are getting lazy. Well, people are scared too. People are getting lazy. You know what the most repeated phrase in all of the Bible is, young Ava? Um, fear not or worry not. Um, 360 sometimes. Um, because that's like the thing that keeps us from kind of being in the flow with God and stuff is we worry and we fret and we try to fix things that we don't need to fix ourselves that we just can trust and chill a little bit. Yeah, my mom always says like stop trying to control things that you literally cannot control at all. There's no point in stressing. And I don't know why I find it so hard to do that. Yeah. I will try not to fear. Fear not. Fear not. Alright, Fear Not Season 2025. Season 5 of The Local Experience is upon us. Thanks for watching and listening. And let's over and out, huh? Yeah. Godspeed. Bye. Alright.