Letter 70

August 26, 2021

On dreams

I don’t often remember my dreams, and when I do, they aren’t usually very weird. I tend to dream about pretty mundane things from my daily life—I’ve dreamed about work, I’ve dreamed about school, I’ve dreamed about hanging out with my friends. My favorite is when I spend a little too much time playing a video game, and then I just dream that I’m playing the video game. My dreams never seem to have any hidden meaning to them, which is sort of boring but mostly comforting. They’re just made up of bits and pieces of what I spend my time doing and thinking about. Sometimes all those little details add up into something confusing when you smash it all together—a house I visited once as a kid, my banking app, a group of strangers from the internet, a boyband member, various members of my family—but that’s the fun part of dreams, I guess.

Jillian

Whenever I have a super freaky or vivid dream, I tell my friend Jess about it. She is an avid dream journaler, tarot reader, and general spiritual-witchy kind of gal, and she helps me make sense of them. When I have a vivid dream, I do want it to mean something. I have a lot of nightmares, especially when my anxiety is higher, and I’ve seen some pretty disturbing shit? but my favorite dreams are the simple weird ones. Once, I dreamed there was a giraffe in my living room that was so, so tiny, but had a sliding door looking out to a spooky patio. I’m an overthinker, I’m a represser, etc etc—I do see dreams as a way of signifying things I cannot ignore.

Summer

We recommend

🎶 Jubilee

This Japanese Breakfast album is so good! I hadn’t really listened to them much (her? I guess it’s a band?) before this release but I’m hooked, I’m a fan, I’m ready to go.

Summer

📱 Discord

I thought somehow, for sure, I must have already recommended Discord at some point in this newsletter. I use it every day! But apparently not, so let me correct that: I probably don’t need to tell anyone what Discord is at this point, but I would at least like to advocate for joining or making a little server with a few of your friends (and friends of friends) so you can have a space to hang out and chat about your day, talk about shared interests in dedicated channels, and maybe chill on voice chat and listen to music together while you work. Discord has kinda become my preferred way to interact with people in different online communities lately, and I’m really glad it exists.

Jillian

🍽️ Layali Lubnan

Is it weird to recommend my own recipe? Mostly I want everyone to enjoy a sweet treat! I made the inaugural layali lubnan in my new apartment and there really is nothing better than pudding and whipped cream and pistachios.

Summer

🎶 Pâtisserie Snail

I’m listening to this new Snail’s House EP while l write this and I love it. It’s just fun and cute and all the songs are named after baked goods, which is basically all I want out of music. Put it on while you work to feel like you’re a lil pixel character in a video game who’s advancing levels by answering emails.

Jillian