#PalCrushMonday: Elizabeth Morales

Hello fellow crushers! My name is Elizabeth, and you can call me E. I’ve known Mallory since about 2022?? And we have had many adventures together. And who am I, you may ask? Well, let’s find out together.

Mal and I met during the Denver days through our dear friend Sasha (notice, no link to a pal crush… huh) who Mallory has known since she was a kid, and who I’ve been lucky enough to get to know in my adulthood. Mal and I met socially a few times in 2022, then in 2023 Sasha got a group together to go see her in a show that featured Mal and fellow talented

Mallory and I were ships in the night when she was in Denver, but our friendship has bloomed from afar and was fueled to the stars by a formative trip to Mexico to be part of Emma and Nic’s nuptials. Here is a series of photos from Mal & E’s Mexico Adventure!!

I’ve noticed that many of Mal’s extremely talented and multi-hypenate friends share their links and accolades in their #PCM. These newsletters really stick with me! Even though I don’t personally know either of these lovely humans, I still think about both Erik Long’s art and Tiff’s self-love and audio voiceover. All of this to say, my edition will be different! I don’t have an instagram handle to share or a list of gorgeous accolades to highlight, which is perfect for reasons that will soon become clear. Foreshadowing, wow!!

The format:

• What I’m crushing (accomplishing, achieving, attaining, fulfilling, something that I am being successful at.)

• What is crushing me (see definition 3b, something that is bringing me down.)

• What I’m crushing on (admiring, adoring, appreciating, cherishing, favoriting, etc.)

• Being okay with and even enthralled by who I am. I’m looking ahead for the first time in a while, I think this is what happens when you get out of a lengthy flight or fight mode (or fawn - it’s me). Being present has historically been very difficult for me, and having a solid sense of self has also been historically difficult. Those things are much less difficult lately and for that I am grateful to me, to the people who love me and also to my therapist Jake for helping me navigate out of the shame that was gifted to me by Catholicism. Yay!

• Trusting myself, going in without a plan (this newsletter, hello), embracing imperfection, knowing hurting people’s feelings and having my feelings hurt is an unavoidable part of connecting, not being so damn hard on myself, and the knowledge that I will never finish The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. And I love that for me.

• The Alien franchise. I watched Alien and Aliens for the first time ever last week. In theaters, no less! Shoutout to The SIE Film Center, I’m pretty sure they use real butter on their popcorn. I plan to continue the series in the order in which the films were released, but I’ll be taking at least a month-long Alien hiatus to recover from the two severely different movies I just saw.

• A potential new job on the horizon. It is deeply beyond time for me to leave my current job, and to move on up. GO ME! MAYBE!

• The Alien franchise. My nervous system is simply not designed for body horror or jump scares. And yet.

• This heat, the fires all across the western US and likely elsewhere, the fact that the more I run my AC the more comfortable I am but the more physically comfortable I am, the more I’m contributing to heating our environment and ruining our ozone making an Earth that the next generation has very little chance of enjoying but that’s mostly the fault of big industries going unregulated because of money in politics. *breathes* Okay. So. Nothing feels like winning on this Earth, except for Europeans trying to get costco sized jugs of ranch dressing through TSA.

• Writing! Writing this #PCM has been so fun even though it would make an English teacher cringe out of their skin. I’ve also been writing what I’m calling “poetry” but it is more accurately journal entries I read out loud to my friends once a month when we get together for poetry night. Here is my favorite excerpt from a recent “poem” of mine:

…and while i love absorbing other peoples’ sins and feeling them mix with my own in a miasmic whirlpool of wrongdoings, it is all indiscernible from the love that’s been left behind, too

• You guessed it folks, the Alien franchise. Now, am I watching this series because the person I’m crushing on is super into it, and it’s very cute to watch them react to me reacting to their favorite media? I sure am. This is most certainly the gayest thing I’ve ever done (positive).

• And last but not least, what I’m crushing on is Mallory of course. Reasons I love Mal include, but are not limited to: she is exactly herself in the most beautiful way, her sense of adventure is both specific and boundless, the way she emotes is the most cutiesweetie, she’s the funniest person I know, she follows her heart, she is GORGEOUS DO YOU SEE THOSE ICONIC CURLS? Her fashion sense is incredible, and she’s so so talented. I wonder if Mal will be surprised by any of these, I kind of love surprising the people I love. In the same spirit, can anyone guess what Mal and I are trying to become sisters in? Drop your ideas in the comments!

Speaking of comments, the #MCM comments section is the most criminally underutilized part of our dear friend’s substack. Let’s talk about it, let’s talk to each other, lets extend the #MCMEU1. Ya know?

Thanks for tuning in! I’m proud to enter the ranks of my fellow pal-crushers. You can reach out to the #PCM Union to get my address and send my matching jacket. In the meantime, you can find me in the #MCM comments. See ya there!