weirdest dream ever

It's a holiday weekend, and I take naps when I want. A nap that started about 2 hours ago ended with the strangest dream that I can recall ever having.  It's my 3rd dream of the year, so I'm at my quota for 2013 now.

I had an invitation to attend a conference. I saw a mix of highly educated and powerful people who were showing up with me, but none of us knew just what the conference was about. We picked up our badges and were told to come back later when the conference would start. I hung my badge around my neck, then I wandered off for an hour or two.

When I came back, I was in the company of a youngish woman. (I didn't recognize her appearance from real life). We approached the downward stairwell that led to the platform where we had picked up our badges, but the stairway was gone. It was partially deconstructed at the high end where we were, but it was altogether missing at the other end. We were told that we had to find another way down there. Apparently the conference included a "test" to see how determined and creative that people could be in achieving their goals.

There was some symmetry to the building, so we decided to take "the other" matching stairwell instead. Getting to the other stairwell became a bizarre maze of narrow hallways and crowded rooms. As we approached the end, we became literally tangled in cloth that was packed all around us. We heard a 3rd voice of an older woman who was likewise tangled on our path to the stairwell. We reached an "edge" and needed to fall downward through a chute toward where I thought the other platform would be. We agreed to do so, so we went over the edge and let the tangling cloth slow our fall. All three of us ended up, though, in a bin outside the building.

Somehow the younger woman tarried behind. I went with the old woman around the edge of the building. We were among people who were setting up camping tents all around us. We saw that we were now below the platform where we needed to be. I joked to the woman, "We should ask the aliens to beam us up there." She replied matter-of-factly that she knew just the ones to ask. One of the tent-building crews were some tiny goggled aliens (sort of like the minions in Despicable Me). She directed them to beam me up, but then she interrupted herself to ask if I had eaten much iron lately. I was explaining that I had other supplements but no iron specifically, and one of the little guys aimed a small device at me, and I floated up to the platform.

I was in a hurry, so I went ahead to find my seat. I was briefly distracted by a small buffet table on the way, but I didn't stop for food. I went into a small conference room to find the seat number that was on my badge. I couldn't find it, then I realized that I was in the wrong room. I went down the hall to another similar room. They were all behind unmarked large metal doors, so it was hard to know which was the correct room.

My eyes were adjusting to the low light in the room. I could see that some other people had found their own ways to the conference in spite of the bad stairway. Only about half of the seats were occupied. I was calculating where my seat should be by the number arrangement, and I spotted it just as the "instructor" was calling my name. He said that I was tardy and should not do that again. I took my seat as other latecomers were arriving during roll call. I sat at the end of a row next to an overweight man who was sweating profusely. Apparently his adventure to get around the missing stairwell was as athletic as mine had been.

The instructor explained that we were all chosen to test a new vaccine. It was designed to protect both us and our progeny from a microbe introduced by a hostile extraterrestrial species. Before they explained any more details, a wave of assistants came out to administer the vaccination to everyone.

An assistant came toward me with a white triangular device that had a small blue light at the apex of one corner. She was pointing that lighted corner at me like it would deliver the vaccination. I kept protesting, because I wanted more information about the nature of the medicine and the virus and this business of aliens being at our planet. She kept peering at me with greater intensity, and I kept pushing away her hand with the device. She was asking me "Who injected you with neurotoxin?", and I kept answering "I don't know". She commented that my heart rate and perspiration were elevated. Of course they were. I was getting assaulted with an injection that I didn't want!

She motioned someone over to us. A mostly-human-appearing man with a much-too-narrow head approached me and looked directly at my eyes. He asked the same question, and I gave the same answer. They seemed satisfied that I was telling the truth. They were in a rush to send me elsewhere to deal with this mysterious neurotoxin.  As I was being escorted out of the room, the alien with the too-narrow head said, "Nobody else (human?/non-human?) has been in there." I can't remember now which option he spoke, but it clearly implied that he couldn't rule out the possibility of the other option having manipulated my memory recall.

I was taken to a room where they intended to address the neurotoxin danger. They continued asking what I remembered about where it came from. I continued saying the now-annoying "I don't know". As they were setting up the device for examining me, I remembered an experience of having my spine pierced by the same device. I said, "Wait, I remember this. This has happened before. I don't want this. This is painful. I don't want this."

And I woke up. I noticed that my heart rate was normal, so the dream was not a nightmare of any traditional kind. I've been trying to decipher the story as I wrote it out. The only element that I can identify is the young woman, the old woman, and the tangle of cloth: clearly the Fates were involved in choosing who attended this bizarre conference. Who wanted me kept away from it, what the human/alien collaboration was about, and why people were camping outside a large hotel building, though, I do not know.  It's an X-Files conference in my brain, apparently.

As I finished this post, T'Reese quivered then woke with a loud meow. Apparently she's having strange dreams today too.