It's been a long, long, long time

I've been having extremely stressful, urgent, problem-solving dreams and it's all correlated to the stress in my personal life, even though the dreams manifest work and professional experiences I do not have. My active imagination come to life.

Donuts

I was hosting a birthday party for myself. It was in a house painted in all white inside. I had just invited my female friends, and we were all wearing pastel colored pjs. My mom was helping me serve breakfast treats. She brought a box full of hot donuts - they were covered in pastel colored icing and sprinkles. She was also preparing mini ice cream sundaes. I distinctly remember the smell of the sweet donuts, and feeling like it was going to be too much sugar.

Death, family, money

I got news that my ex-boyfriend's father had passed away suddenly. He is a very fit, health, happy man, so it was definitely premature and shocking. Even though I haven't spoken to my ex in a year, I decided to email him with my condolences. I emailed him twice, and never got a response.

In another part of my dream, I went home to my parent's house. I had an emotional breakdown at the airport as I was arriving, thinking about how my parents were always treating my brother with more leniency and had a greater appreciation for his accomplishments than mine because they were better juxtaposed against his failures. I was crying when my dad picked me up - I think I tried to explain to him why I was crying, and my mom eventually asked me too. My dad didn't say anything very useful but at least it was gentle, while my mom was dismissive and essentially told me to get over the complex that I have.

I also saw myself in the airport on the way back to DC, and I went to a Tex Mex restaurant. I was going to get a Margarita but it was too expensive and I was really worried about spending money (like I currently am in my waking life). I was disappointed, but I think I got something cheaper.

Last night, I dreamt I was traveling in Peru with one of my female cousins. We had an ambitious travel plan, and we were basically trying to see as much as we could in one day and then traveling to the next place at night.

In another segment, I found a new talent for skiing. I went down a mountain with full confidence; nothing like the one and only time I ever tried to ski in real life. I was fearless. It was cold, but I felt free.

Disappearing

I dreamt that I took a solo trip around the world, without letting anyone know, disappearing in the night with nothing but a backpack and a blanket. I ended up on a sketchy street somewhere in Mexico and had to find refuge for the night. It was getting cold, and I came across a church. I walked in and it was dark, except for the altar. Some moving figures were in the corner - also backpackers, then others were homeless. Without saying much, I walked my way into an adjacent building. Some sort of community kitchen. I helped myself to some bread and water, and looked for a spot in the church to spend the night. I remember reflecting on the fact that there was just bread and water, like a prison. Yet it was my refuge../

Screaming in my sleep

I had a nightmare, which I then woke up from (in my dream) only to find myself in the same nightmare - which made me believe it was all real. In the first nightmare, I was in bed and I felt by body levitating. I couldn't understand why and for a few seconds I let it because I liked it. Then I got a little scared, when suddenly I started to hear odd noises, like muffled angry yelling. As the seconds went by, it got louder and louder, and I could feel an energy moving over me and the sounds were coming from below me. I became very afraid and wanted to wake up but I could not. I tried to wake up by screaming my roommate's name but all I could do was breathe out her name weakly, I couldn't scream. Almost like there wasn't any air in me. I became increasingly frightened and started to breathe heavily and she couldn't hear a thing. I heard her stir in her sleep. I finally was too overwhelmed by the noise, when suddenly I woke up. But I had woken up in another nightmare, where I couldn't move, I was paralyzed in the same bed. Eventually I woke up by screaming in my head "wake up wake up"

A few

- I was looking for a friend in a mansion. Another friend misled me and I eventually wasn't able to find him, while my friend knew exactly where he was and went and hung out with him. I think we were at some house party that got out of control and then we had to leave. I think drinking was involved.

- I was with a good friend on some sort of road trip. His mother was driving, and we were in the first row behind the driver's seat - in a van, so there were two seats with a space in the middle. I remember we were playing and talking about our new BOSE noise cancelling headphones. We also made a stop at a tomb-like museum in the middle of a park somewhere on this roadtrip. My friend had drawn on his face with pen around his eyes and cheeks in a linear pattern of some sort.

- I brought a person I recently met to visit my family. I think he helped my mom find seafood because we were trying to make some Peruvian seafood dish. He also took me to a fraternity "ring ceremony" thing and he didn't get a ring but was essentially on some sort of waiting list where he would get into the frat if some of the people they had invited preferred other offers they had received. The best part of this dream was that there was a path around this frat ceremony location. On the path, there were these lights that looked like spherical orbs of light on the ground. They rocked