Firehouse Conjugal Visits?

In this candid conversation, Amber shares her journey balancing motherhood, firefighting partner life, and personal growth. She discusses the challenges of reentry, maintaining intimacy, and exploring new professional paths while raising a toddler. Contains explicit content. 

Takeaways

• Being a first responder partner comes with unique challenges.
• Self-care is essential for maintaining balance in family life.
• Communication is key to navigating the demands of first responder schedules.
• Therapy can provide valuable support for first responder families.
• Maintaining intimacy requires open conversations and effort from both partners.
• It's important to prioritize personal aspirations alongside family responsibilities.
• Reentry after shifts can be challenging and requires understanding.
• Small gestures of appreciation can strengthen relationships.
• Creating a safe space for discussing intimacy is crucial.
• Exploring personal interests can lead to personal growth and fulfillment.

Transcript

All right. Welcome to the Fire Family Collective Podcast. I'm Amanda and I am here chatting with Amber today. Hi, Amber. Thank you for joining us.

Amber (01:21.603)
Yeah.

Amber (01:32.453)
Thank you for having me.

Ventura Fire Foundation (01:34.806)
We're so excited to dive into some fire chat as partners of first responders. Tell us about yourself.

Amber (01:43.749)
So currently I am a stay-at-home mom of one. I have a toddler little girl so That's been a lot in itself, but it's been good. It's just kind of like obviously my husband is a first responder so it's hard to kind of like Shift changes all the stuff, but yeah, so I'm doing that right now, and I substitute on the side So I do that occasionally I was doing that mainly to

transition into being a teacher, but now I'm kind of like, kind of in between that. So yeah, that's kind of where I'm at right now.

Ventura Fire Foundation (02:21.881)
That's awesome. And how old is your, you said toddler? Yeah. Okay. So very busy walking, moving around, starting to like talk and ask all the things. Yeah. And then, yeah, it's like,

Amber (02:25.317)
Yes, she's she like barely turned two. So yeah.

Yeah, all the things. Mm-hmm. Yeah, she's been a lot.

Ventura Fire Foundation (02:40.938)
You are so excited you can finally like leave the house and have activities but also you're like exhausted and like I wish I could go back to just being trapped in my house.

Amber (02:45.901)
Mm-hmm.

Amber (02:50.629)
Yeah, I feel like the baby stage is a little, I don't know, a lot of people think it's harder, but sometimes I'm like the toddler stage though, like the running, the energy. Yeah.

Ventura Fire Foundation (03:00.622)
Yeah, I think once you get out of it, you're like, I didn't know how good I had it. also just especially as like a first time parent, you're just adjusting to everything that it just is so hard because it's all new. And then yeah, by the time they're a toddler, you're like, I'd go back.

Amber (03:13.614)
Yes.

Amber (03:17.509)
I know, I'm like, if she was just sleeping like 14 hours a day again, I would love that. Yeah.

Ventura Fire Foundation (03:22.208)
Yes. Yes. Yeah, you're like, what was I thinking when I wish that away? Yeah, that's cool. And then what about the substitute teacher? How do you fit that in with Fire, partner life and toddler mom?

Amber (03:40.389)
So I usually so because my husband has a set schedule most of the time besides like taking over time, right? So if he does have the set schedule, I will just block out like periods of days that I know I for sure can't work. And then the other days, like I can just they actually have an app, which is kind of cool. I don't know if a lot of sub jobs have it, but they do have an app. And then you just go ahead and

you block it through there and then so that way I can just like go through the whole list of like the month and then make sure like I can just have days where I could take a job if I needed to or on the days that he's like not gonna work. But yeah, so that's what we're doing right now and it is challenging.

Ventura Fire Foundation (04:25.538)
Yeah, but you're fitting it in. It's something that you want to prioritize and you're trying it out. That's great. That's great. And you have been with your partner for a while. Have you been with him the whole time through his fire journey? What does that look like for you?

Amber (04:28.289)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Amber (04:41.989)
So we met in, I think, 2017. Yeah, we met in 2017. He was working for, I think, the Forest Service at the time. I think he had done one year at that point. So he was already kind of in the midst of campaign fires or just like a lot of being gone a lot. And then I think Forest Service, work Monday through Friday.

So he was gone just that whole time would come home on weekends. And then, so when we first met, that was kind of like what he dealt with. He was in the forest service for that first year we were dating still. And there were pretty bad fires that year. I'm pretty sure I think it was 2017, 2018. There were, he was on, I think it was the Creek fire, a lot of fires he was on and then transitioned to Cal fire. And so that's been, I think it's a little more beneficial. It's like a better.

atmosphere I think just in general also coming home more yeah.

Ventura Fire Foundation (05:40.334)
All

Great. Yeah, it's hard when their schedules are so unpredictable. So that's nice that you feel like you get to see them more and your, you know, child needs to be with their parents more. Yeah. And then you also are like transitioning into this new professional space. Did you want to talk more about that?

Amber (05:54.477)
Yeah. Yeah, it's been good.

Amber (06:08.561)
Yeah. Um, yes. So I feel for women, well, at least stay at home moms, I can only speak for me, but I feel like a lot of other stay at home moms are like, we're just here, you know, it's hard to be at the house. It's hard to find time to like make time for your you definitely have to make time for yourself in terms of like going to gym or job stuff, all that stuff. So I've been trying to prioritize a little more on like what

a career shift looks like for me probably in the next three to five years after she's, you know, away at school or whatever it be. But yeah, so right now I'm currently looking into sonography programs. I don't know if you know what that is, but it's like the ultrasound techs, even like maybe radiology. I've been looking into that. have a background in... Yeah, I have a background in... I was pre-med, so I got my bachelor's of science in biology.

Ventura Fire Foundation (06:55.438)
That's great.

Amber (07:03.237)
pre-med and then, so I'm kind of looking into maybe medical fields. I just felt like subbing or like teaching kind of isn't what I want to do or like not what might suit me best. So kind of just going like trying to figure out what I want to do, trying to shadow. I'm going to shadow some hospitals soon. So I'm excited for that too, but that's a lot.

Ventura Fire Foundation (07:25.528)
Yeah, and just being in the hospital, there's so many different jobs within the hospital. So you could work so many different departments, and it's endless. feels like how many different positions are available within the medical field like that.

Amber (07:31.961)
Yeah.

Amber (07:35.781)
Mm-hmm.

Amber (07:39.446)
Yeah.

Amber (07:43.673)
Yeah, there's a lot of things you don't think about that you need, I feel like, like in terms of like when you go to the hospital or even like primary care or all that stuff. So there's a lot of different things. Yeah.

Ventura Fire Foundation (07:53.782)
Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's exciting in the midst of, you know, newer young kid and motherhood and fire partner that you're still like, I want to do something for me and this is interesting to me. So I'm going to explore this.

Amber (07:59.652)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Amber (08:08.879)
in

Amber (08:12.185)
Yeah, I think a lot of women I feel kind of like put the like, I even me like I feel like I put myself to the side to, you know, take care of the house, take care of my daughter, take care of, you know, whatever needs to be done so that we have like a healthy home. But it's like at the end of the day, it's also like what I want to do or just making sure you make time for yourself to, you know, because you still are important. Even if you're like a stay at home mom.

Ventura Fire Foundation (08:39.65)
Yeah, I think that one of my sayings that I always used to hear was like, you can't pour from an empty cup. And sometimes we like do the check boxes of like, well, I showered today and I like texted this friend of mine. I listened to a podcast. Like those are ways I filled my cup, but like, is that really enough? You know, like we need to be real with ourselves and not BS and be like, I mean, yes, those are like bare minimums.

Amber (09:00.271)
Yeah.

Ventura Fire Foundation (09:09.152)
of ways I'm pouring into myself, but not really. Like I also need to actually go see my friend or I need to actually go to a book club and I need to actually get a massage, whatever it looks like, you know, those are ways that I actually need to pour into me. because we find ourselves in this rut of like, I'm just,

Amber (09:11.226)
Mm-hmm.

Amber (09:18.308)
Yeah.

Amber (09:24.57)
Yep.

Amber (09:27.909)
Yeah.

Ventura Fire Foundation (09:34.602)
spinning the hamster wheel and why am I so miserable and why don't I feel good and why don't I feel like the connection with my partner and how come it doesn't feel like I have any friends and it's like well it all starts with me like I'm the problem I need to figure out what I need and I need to ask for those things and I need to prioritize them so how do I do that what does that look like for my unique fire of life it's very dynamic from family to family

Amber (09:47.205)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Amber (09:56.152)
Yes.

Yeah, it's also like when they come home, as I feel like when they come home, it's just like a it's a big drastic change when they do get off shift. So that's definitely something, well, that's something in itself too completely, but yeah, it's hard.

Ventura Fire Foundation (10:13.484)
Yeah. Reentry is very challenging. And I think every, again, every family has what works for them for reentry and, you know, making sure your partner on the days that they can have the decompression time before they walk in the door is huge. And for us, this new department, my husband's been at the past couple of years, we live within 10 minutes of the department. So he doesn't have that time to on his like commute back home.

Amber (10:23.226)
Yeah.

Amber (10:29.637)
Mm-hmm.

Amber (10:36.623)
Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Ventura Fire Foundation (10:43.508)
decompress. So typically, unless we have like an appointment or something, he won't come home for about an hour just to make sure he's had that time to like process everything, leave it at the station, you know, and it makes a difference being able to, you see the difference when he doesn't have that decompression time for re-entry. And ideally, like you said, taking care of yourself, he could go to the gym, he could.

Amber (10:44.652)
Yeah.

Amber (10:50.53)
Okay.

Amber (11:07.109)
Mm-hmm.

Ventura Fire Foundation (11:13.278)
a massage, something like that to really take care of himself. But that isn't typical.

Amber (11:13.48)
Mm-hmm.

Amber (11:21.701)
Yeah, usually my husband well, he's been working on He's been journaling at work, which has been really helpful. So he's been journaling at work Which I think is good for just like whatever they're running like any calls they're running, you know, whatever they see so he's really that's been helping when he comes home to just like the journaling or even just like He takes I think his it's like 40 minutes from his yeah, we're 40 minutes away from his job. So then

I think he does do podcasts or even just like music, all that stuff before he, you know, before he does come home. So that's pretty nice too.

Ventura Fire Foundation (12:00.78)
Yeah, it's a process. I think that's one of the things, one of my friends who's a military wife, she would tell me like, sometimes I feel like you have it harder because you're constantly having the reentry. Whereas like her husband in the military, he's gone for months at a time. So their transition every time he comes back home isn't every few days. And they don't feel it as frequently as we do.

Amber (12:22.639)
Yeah.

Ventura Fire Foundation (12:31.162)
but man, when, yeah. Yeah. Yep. Yep. Like, okay, daddy's home.

Amber (12:32.389)
Yeah, it's like a reset. It's like a reset every week. A restart. A new challenge. Yeah, a new challenge, a new something experienced. Yeah.

Ventura Fire Foundation (12:42.476)
Yeah.

Yeah. And then I was curious, what is this new thing that you're launching? Can you tell us about that?

Amber (12:51.043)
Yeah.

Amber (12:58.571)
Yeah, so my therapist, okay, so just start off with, so me and my husband, we went to couples counseling, I think this was like a year ago. We started going to couples counseling with a woman who is like dedicated to working with first responders. So it was really nice. was so like, it was a big refresh for us to just like talk to somebody who actually already knows.

knows what it is, knows how it works. And so we went to her. She actually inspired me to create this podcast based off. So it's called Just the Right Buttons and I'm the main host on it. And so sometimes my husband is in the actual podcast with me. So we just talk about like, we talk about the nitty gritty stuff, the sex, the marriage, all the like, sometimes it does get raunchy, I will say.

This is FYI. Yeah, it's completely real. It's just authentic. so I'm just hoping to provide a space for other first responders who also experience like, I don't know, because I feel like a lot of guys are just like, either it's like a sexless marriage or you know what I mean, or not understanding what the white, if your other spouse is also not a first responder, it's like.

Ventura Fire Foundation (13:55.051)
We want real, we're not BSing. Yeah, we're real here.

Amber (14:22.359)
It's a complete like it's completely different if you're not a first responder, you know, like living with one. So it's hard, I feel for the guys or the girls, whoever is the first responder to kind of like come home and then assimilate, but then also deal with like how much sex are we having? Is that even a conversation? You know, intimacy during the day? Are we, you know, are we actually listening to our partner or what they're, you know, just picking up all the cues?

So I did come out with this podcast. And so it's just to help marriages, anyone who's first responder related. Yeah, so I'm excited for it. I think I'm on episode seven or eight. It's been, yeah, it's been cool. It's been nice. It's fun.

Ventura Fire Foundation (14:52.131)
Yeah.

Ventura Fire Foundation (15:05.422)
Cool.

Ventura Fire Foundation (15:09.772)
Yeah, it's really interesting just to go back to what you initially said, you know, kind of sparked this. Years ago, I think it was like 2015 or 16, my husband and I found a couple's therapist, just therapist, and we went for couples counseling, but she is a firefighter wife. So being able to have her as our therapist, she firsthand could speak to things differently.

Amber (15:14.661)
Thank you.

Amber (15:21.305)
Mm-hmm.

Amber (15:26.796)
Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Ventura Fire Foundation (15:37.034)
And that really like resonated with my husband because he's like, she gets it. and then I think it was maybe a year or two ago now had to be, yeah, maybe two years ago. I started going to counseling again since moving back to Southern California again. and I went through the counseling team international and made sure that we're getting someone who's culturally competent with first responder families.

Amber (15:37.037)
Mm-hmm.

Amber (15:52.965)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Amber (16:06.021)
Mm-hmm.

Ventura Fire Foundation (16:06.242)
And it just makes such a difference because you, just, you know, other practitioners, they just can't get it because it's just not what they're focused on. So yeah. So being able to, you're trying to get help. want to get help from the best help you can get, you know? and so I'm glad that you and your husband took the time to utilize that resource and take advantage of it because I feel like just that in and of itself is a huge.

Amber (16:15.781)
It's not in their real house. Yeah.

Amber (16:27.364)
Yeah.

Ventura Fire Foundation (16:36.046)
hurdle for some couples, like partners aren't always willing to seek it out. They're not always willing to share that they are utilizing that resource. So kudos to you and thank you for sharing. And I hope that helps other people feel seen and safe to know. And then yeah, the intimacy, that thing. Like I...

Amber (16:37.445)
and

Amber (16:43.877)
Mm-hmm.

Amber (16:53.443)
or it's a big statement.

Amber (17:02.437)
Ventura Fire Foundation (17:03.65)
I swear, I feel like I'm the only person who verbally says, why don't we have conjugal visits? Like, I just don't understand. And my husband is, like, mortified because he does not talk about things like that. And I'm, like, screaming it from the rooftops to the battalion chiefs, like, listen, please. Yeah, yes, why not?

Amber (17:14.936)
That's it.

Amber (17:19.333)
you

Amber (17:25.957)
That'd good though.

Ventura Fire Foundation (17:30.09)
I mean, I don't understand. People in prison got conjugal visits. Like, what? I don't get it. Yes!

Amber (17:34.469)
I never even thought about that being an option. I never even thought about that, but I could see that.

Ventura Fire Foundation (17:40.95)
It'll probably never happen. My husband's gonna be mortified when he hears this and he'll be like, damn it.

Amber (17:43.717)
Yeah, I'm sure. Yeah, I'm HR would be calling him immediately and be like, what is going on? That's funny. But maybe all the wives would feel better. They'd be like, well, let me come to the station.

Ventura Fire Foundation (17:50.05)
Yes, yes, your wife, sir. Yes, yeah, put in the request. This is the wife request box.

Amber (18:00.911)
Yeah, that is funny. You're like this day, this week.

Ventura Fire Foundation (18:05.066)
Yes, we'll schedule it just like, you know, the shift calendar. Yeah, yeah. So we'll see. It's my pie in the sky. Yeah, yeah. everyone heard it here first. Okay. Fire Family Collective podcast. It was Amanda's idea. Okay, so tell me more about like, how do you as

Amber (18:08.431)
That's funny. That'd be great.

Amber (18:15.205)
That's funny. That's great though. I've never heard that. I've never heard anyone talk about that.

you

That's funny.

Ventura Fire Foundation (18:33.62)
Amber and partner, what are some of the things that you do maybe while your partner's on shift to keep the intimacy and make sure you're feeling like your needs are met and heard and the same thing for your partner?

Amber (18:35.375)
Mm-hmm.

Amber (18:48.929)
so I do feel well the current department he is at I feel like the guys just based off what he tells me the guys kind of struggle even when they are married like I feel like they kind of have like the It's almost toxic masculinity a little I hate to say it but they kind of are so I feel like whenever I kind of have expectations for in terms of like when he is on shift like

Obviously like communication, right? But I feel like it differs for it differs for who, know, wherever you work or if it's like municipal or if you're working in the city, you're working in a county. Obviously you're going to be like if you're he's on a campaign fire, not going to be expecting the same things as if he was, you know, just like on calls or you know what I mean? That type of stress level is a lot different than if he's just at the station. So I expect like, you know, to some extent, like

Ventura Fire Foundation (19:36.002)
Great.

Amber (19:45.549)
What is our communication every day? You know, I feel like that kind of needs to be worked out. Like, what are we expecting in terms of like texting or calling, FaceTiming? Are we FaceTiming the kids, you know, when they go to sleep? What are we prioritizing? But I definitely do appreciate like him calling every night. I think that should be pretty commonplace.

Ventura Fire Foundation (20:04.109)
Yeah.

Amber (20:11.799)
even in terms of like just talking to like the kiddos saying good night or like spending time with me as well. So I think like that kind of depends. Also just like sending appreciative texts throughout the day, feel. I feel like that's nice. Even if like, you know, I don't know what like everybody's dynamic and stuff, but if the partner is at home taking care of kids, then it's, I feel like it'd be helpful to be like, hey, like

Thanks for XYZ today or like, I saw you on the ring camera take out the trash today. Like that was nice. Like, you know, just little things like that. think that's really like little things go far sometimes, Phil.

Ventura Fire Foundation (20:45.997)
Yeah.

Ventura Fire Foundation (20:52.962)
Yeah, those words of affirmation and the, I see you doing that and thank you and be realistic. Like you said, if they're on a fire or something big where you know they can't communicate, then don't hold a grudge. Like don't make a fight out of something that they have no control over. It can be.

Amber (21:01.199)
Mm-hmm.

Amber (21:06.329)
Yeah.

Amber (21:10.445)
It can be hard though. The stress, the house, you know, it's hard to take care of a house. So I can't, you know, it's always like, it is hard and emotions do rise. Stress levels, you know, especially for the partner who's at home and you know, they're not, it's not like as relatable to them, you know, just being at the house being like, wow, like resentful sometimes but yeah, it's all that.

Ventura Fire Foundation (21:38.446)
Yeah, it can be a challenge and it's just kind of testing things out and seeing what works and what doesn't work and be like, you know, I need to try something different because I'm just not feeling my needs are met. So can we talk about it and let's, you know, try something different.

Amber (21:49.091)
Yeah.

Amber (21:54.479)
Mm-hmm.

Ventura Fire Foundation (21:58.616)
Awesome. And then what are like you say creating space for pleasure without pressure or shame. What does that look like?

Amber (22:08.825)
Mm-hmm.

Amber (22:12.641)
so I feel that that... So I don't know if I'm the anomaly, but I feel like we talk about sex a lot. So in terms of like, us having that kind of conversation, kind of developing a space of like, even like after sex, if we liked it, that's commonplace for us even if we're, I guess for years and years and years, we just always talk about it. That's something we've always like...

touched on, we actually even rate it sometimes. We're like, afterwards we're like, hey, like how was that for you? As we're like, you know, yeah, I feel like that like sets up the, you know, sets up the space, just making sure that like you guys are on the same page of like what you guys want before you have, you know, before you get there leading up to it. I mean, you could even be sending.

Ventura Fire Foundation (22:49.624)
love that open lines of communication.

Amber (23:07.823)
pictures or talking about what you want to do, you know, just kind of setting up the scene, even if they are on shift. And then when it comes to that time, like even just like, just kind of like creating that space of whatever it looks like for you guys or what you sometimes even desires or what, you know, what are we looking for? So that's all that. Yep. It's like all day.

Ventura Fire Foundation (23:30.154)
Yeah, you're you're setting the scene for foreplay. It's a build up. Yeah, I get it. I have my my like personal development books with my smut romance novels and then my husband books like I get it. You it's like it's all part of it like we have to be able to share what we need. can't expect our partner to be a mind reader.

Amber (23:37.315)
All day for play. That's funny. That's smart. That's funny.

Amber (23:57.411)
Yeah.

Ventura Fire Foundation (23:57.492)
And frankly, I don't always know what I need, but I need something. So let's just try it. Okay.

Amber (24:00.837)
That's funny. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, I think it's good just to kind of like, I don't know, feel a lot of people are, it's like taboo and it's a lot of just whatever, but I feel like if you can't be honest with your partner and then it's like, you know, this is like the perfect space for you to be, hey, I want to try, you know, something crazy today. I don't know. It's like, just put it out there.

Ventura Fire Foundation (24:22.146)
Yeah. Well, and they're like your person. So they're the person you should be able to like share those like, this is kind of weird, but I'm thinking about it. So.

Amber (24:27.268)
and

Amber (24:32.293)
Yeah, You're like, this is kind of uncomfortable, but this is the perfect space for us to, you know, dive into stuff like that.

Ventura Fire Foundation (24:39.552)
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I love that you're being bold and brave and you are putting yourself and this out there because not everyone does that. So to know that this matters to you and you're shining some light on it in this community means a lot. So thank you for doing that.

Amber (24:45.965)
you

Amber (25:02.233)
Thank you. Yeah, I'm excited for it. It's like it's a good time. I like talking about it I don't have any issues really talking about sex. So it's just been good all around. Yeah

Ventura Fire Foundation (25:11.97)
Yeah. And I think that hopefully it gives people courage to do something like that with whatever it may look in their life. It doesn't have to be about intimacy and relationships, but just something that's curious to them. And they're wondering about like, okay, they heard Amber talking about this. Like maybe they're like now inspired to whatever, you know? So that's really cool. So thank you. there any, is tell them to what?

Amber (25:30.105)
Mm-hmm.

Amber (25:37.541)
I'm like, tell your man to go down on you. Just tell him to go down on you. I'm like, just tell him immediately. Just do what you need.

Ventura Fire Foundation (25:44.718)
Yes, yes, get on your knees. Get on your knees. Yes, yes.

Amber (25:50.773)
on your knees. That's funny.

Ventura Fire Foundation (25:54.956)
Your clear lines of communication. Yeah. Is there anything else you wanted to share on that very exciting topic?

Amber (25:57.145)
Yeah.

Amber (26:10.213)
I don't know. I guess not. Yeah, just listen to the podcast. It's good. I give a lot of different advice. Sometimes I go into even like, I think one of them I went into like female anatomy, because I feel like men are kind of sometimes. Yeah, I'm like, so sometimes I just put it out there. I'm just I'm just trying to inspire others to just go for it, send it, whatever that looks like.

Ventura Fire Foundation (26:21.806)
Cool.

Yeah, you don't need to do your own research. Amber did it for you.

Ventura Fire Foundation (26:36.32)
Yeah, I love that. I love that. Well, before we end, did you want to answer a silly question?

Amber (26:44.003)
Yeah, that's good.

Ventura Fire Foundation (26:45.56)
Do you have one that you were leaning more towards sharing?

Amber (26:48.854)
which one was the... I forget what they were already.

Ventura Fire Foundation (26:54.734)
Okay, you can do superpower, song, best meal, something you've always wanted to learn, random fact that surprises people.

Amber (27:05.553)
we can do the random fact. Yeah. so my random fact, I was in a marching band, a college marching band and I was, yeah, I was a section leader in a college marching band. That was cool. It was a while ago, but yeah, it was sick. It was one of it was one of the coolest things I've done. Honestly, it was cool being on like the football fields performing and stuff. It was crazy.

Ventura Fire Foundation (27:07.596)
Let's hear it.

Ventura Fire Foundation (27:14.882)
Cool.

Ventura Fire Foundation (27:19.476)
Awesome. Yeah, that's really neat.

Ventura Fire Foundation (27:26.338)
Yeah.

Ventura Fire Foundation (27:32.206)
Yes, I love that. I'm not musically talented in any way. It's something, yeah, I've wanted to learn how to basic piano. So again, we talk about taking time for ourselves and pouring in, that's on my list of learning. Yeah, so that's so cool. Thank you for sharing. Yeah. Yeah.

Amber (27:36.581)
And clients.

Amber (27:44.185)
Yeah.

learning.

Amber (27:50.821)
Yeah, the piano's good. Mm-hmm. Piano's fun. Yeah, I played the clarinet. Squidward. I know. Everyone's like, squidward. Yeah. That's funny. Yeah.

Ventura Fire Foundation (27:57.321)
cool. Yeah. Everyone knows SpongeBob. Everyone knows Squidward.

Yeah. Cool. Well, it was really interesting getting talked to you, Amber, and check out our podcast. Let's dive into the maybe not traditionally comfortable topics to discuss and stay connected with our partners and have those bold discussions.

Amber (28:24.683)
Mm-hmm. Thank you for having me.

Ventura Fire Foundation (28:26.732)
Yeah, of course. Okay, I'm going to stop the recording, but stay on because it takes us a little bit to upload after it's almost done, though.