Summer of Love

Jun 11, 2025

‘My personal tragedy will not interfere with my ability to write a good Substack…”

I want to apologize to my faithful subscribers as I have been missing in action this last month. May became June so quickly I’m not sure what happened. On Monday morning I finally came up for air. Finding myself in DC at the Watergate Hotel. I was finally alone and felt ready to write. Of course, I did not have my laptop as I wanted to travel light so I went free hand on some stationary and it felt so good.

I spent most of May starting a new job and packing up LA. A city I have loved for so long but it doesn’t feel like home anymore and I have decided to look for greener pastures. Between the fires, riots and a failed romance I needed a minute to breathe.

Love (the new electrolyte water I have been working with) brought me to Washington DC to celebrate Pride and it was in that colorful crowd that I felt I could let go and let love in. The gays have always been so good to me. Long before I was on Bravo my gay friends have stuck by me through thick and thin. It felt really special to be able to be there for them and I appreciated everyone who stopped and said hello. It’s a strange thing to have fans. I still don’t like saying that out loud as it feels gauche. Half of my Love crew did not know I was on a reality show and did not understand why people wanted photo’s with me. I sort of prefer it that way but also don’t want to down play the excitement someone feels when their tv sets come to life and I wanted to match their enthusiasm. Currently, I am reading Parker Posey’s book and if I saw her on the street you can best believe I would fan girl. I hope she would be kind and take the photo’s and do the things.

Today, I am in Charleston with my family and about to head to the airport for Nashville to go to Bonnaroo. My sisters went the first 3 years and it is something I have yet to experience. At first I was sort of dreading the whole thing. In my old age I am not a festival girl and was doing everything I could to get a hotel off site. But our fearless founder of Love water and my dear friend Leslie said, “No, you’ll want to be in the RV with us for the full experience. We will be in the artist village and I need you.” I have a broken heart right now and knew I would need some space to heal but maybe the healing comes from letting people in. I don’t have to be a fortress and in fact that is the worst thing I could do right now, put up a bunch of walls in the name of self preservation but that is what feels safe to me. They don’t call me an ice queen for nothing, my WASPy upbringing sort of demands the solitude to deal with emotions. “Never let them see you struggle,” words Shep would whisper to me every time I teared up while filming. This time I want it to be different and share those struggles that’s what makes us human and I think why most of you are here and reading this, some how - some way my experiences resonate with y’all and I long to be an open book.

Here’s some photo’s from World Pride in DC. I promise I’ll do a better job of bringing y’all with me on the road this summer. Pray for me in the mud. I’ll be with Luke Combs - out where the wild things are.

Peace and love

xo, Lala

(That is what my nieces call me and it has been really good to hear their little voices calling for me this week.)