Last night my dreams woke me up and left me uneasy, and I couldn't get back to sleep.
I was like a ken doll or something, no genitalia, but looking like myself, much paler and less angular than a ken doll.
I was a field biologist, and I discovered a new species of bluebird. I found a breeding pair. One was injured or sick, and missing some feathers, and so he was easy to catch. His mate could have flown away, but wouldn't leave him.
I examined the sick one, and he had mites all over him, some kind of parasitic insect that hadn't been recorded before. I took notes and photos and released the birds, and then went home and went to sleep.
I woke up the next day infested with the bugs. They looked like very tiny versions of the shield bugs that (in my climate and area) you tend to see all over the place. In real life they are much larger, and totally harmless. These were small, brown with white stripes, and parasitic.
I thought I killed all of them, but when I awoke the next day, one had grown to be almost the size of my hand. Its antennae and legs were long and rough, like the tall grasses that cut you if you grasp them and pull. It wouldn't let go of me. It was on my arm, and I asked a friend to get it off, and he did but it flew into the air and landed right back on my hand. I couldn't get it off, and I hadn't even named it yet. I was ashamed at feeling trapped and afraid of my own discovery.
I woke up feeling sketched out, and like that ->-bleeped-<- had gotten entirely too real for comfort.