The Liberation of Lola

There were a lot of things I was going to write about this past weekend. I was going to talk about the killer heat that seemed to hang over every moment. About how odd it felt to be at Lola’s graduation in Orange County—the weirdly skinny older women, the overly sexy and tanned boys, and the slow waves of boredom from Max Weinberg’s speech. (Thanks to Kelly and Valeska for counting the Springsteen/Conan O’Brein references—Conan came out on top.)

I was going to spread all the gossip from her raging party; how I butchered “Touch Me In the Morning”, how Susan and Valeska annoyed each other through out the night and whom went home with whom. That everyone played their parts as per the norm—about Lola and Glenda singing Heart and how Shannon cracked me up with the pronoun game when talking about exes.

Instead this weekend reminded me of moving to Los Angeles 7 years ago. That I had only three large suitcases and the biggest cardboard box every that managed to contain everything I owed. About working retail because I had no work connections, eating ramien till I thought I would scream, spending every day with Edie, Kelly, Skylar and Michael because we didn’t know anyone else in the city.

How there was the joy of making my first L.A. friend (Charity), of getting my first national magazine article, of finding Aroma and Vitello’s. The nights of driving around the city blasting Nelson or figuring out the local dating by having bad dinners and putting out because it was more fun than turning the guy away. All the ways life changed as I tried to figure out the ‘real world’ and how proud I am of it all.

I just hope Lola knows how lucky she is and how much fun it is all going to be. Cause it may take time but it will be.