I dreamt about zombies last night.

This isn’t a rarity. One every two or three months I’ll have an extremely vivid zombie dream, and it isn’t simply because I’m inclined to watch more than my fair share of living dead movies - and last night was no exception, as I watched the first Resident Evil, which was good until they introduced the slimy monster guy.

This recurring dream - and I refuse to call it a nightmare, because somehow it doesn’t feel like one - involves me, a group of people who I have never seen before, and a world overrun by zombies. Consider the most recent remake of Dawn of the Dead, where the zombies can run, are very strong, and are generally not as stupid as they usually are made to be as the basis for this.

I never die in these dreams. I am usually leading a group of people to some semblance of safety; a few months ago, we were trying to reach a loft space in a large mansion by the side of a lake, for example.

The interesting part of these dreams is that it always somehow parallels something going on in my life at the time, and is usually work-related. Some time ago I was stressed out over the fact that I felt myself to be the minion of the marketing team whose ideas and suggestions always seemed to be overlooked by the higher-ups. This was echoed in the dream; I was doing my damnedest to get the group I was leading to safety, but for some reason no one acknowledged me as I tried to maneuver an extremely heavy ladder towards the loft we were trying to reach.

I’m curious as to the basis for these dreams, not so much because of the parallel between the actions in the dream and what’s going on at the office, because that’s rather obvious, but because of the prevalence of the living dead. The most common interpretation I’ve found of zombie dreams includes the subject as a zombie himself. Dream-Meanings.org says,

To see or dream that you are a zombie, suggests that you are physically and/or emotionally detached from people and situations that are currently surrounding you. You are feeling out of touch.

Alternatively, it may indicate that you are feeling dead inside and are simply going through the motions of daily living.

This is decidedly not the case with me. Apart from randomly being stressed out about something, I’m generally happy with my life and everything in it. I have a great home life, and despite somewhat tumultuous periods - perfectly normal, I’ve heard - I do love my job.

Anyway, the point of all this is that, in last night’s dream, there was a first-time experience: I chopped off the arm of one of my company’s software engineers. Maybe it’s the fact that I’ve been feeling overwhelmed lately with the big launch and all (in this dream, there were far more zombies than usual - another parallel, methinks). But I have no ill well towards the guy. In fact, I thought it to be rather amusing.

The Brits are arriving tomorrow afternoon, and I am well excited. Unfortunately, Murphy’s law had it in for me and decided to push our huge announcement(s) at work to, you guessed it, a week from today, which means that the majority of the next seven days will be spent at the office rather than using up my vacation days to spend time with them.

That being said, the craziness going on at work is enormously (dare I say it?) gratifying, despite some serious to-do lists. With the departure of our creative director, I’ve found myself the sole designer of many pieces of collateral, which means entertaining myself with Photoshop tricks and scrounging through various repositories of stock photography. Honestly, I often wonder why I didn’t do graphic design at college; it’s always been a habit/passion of mine. Anyway, things are turning out very nicely, my to-do list is growing steadily smaller, and the light can be seen at the end of the tunnel. Plus, the icing on the cake was seeing a case study I wrote some months ago published in an industry magazine this week. I know my mother will be so proud.

Because of everything, I’ve decided to forgo sleep for the foreseeable future in exchange for getting my stuff done at work during the day and playing with the Brits at night. Atlantic City is still definitely in the cards, as is spending quite a bit of time in New York. I hear the Easter parade is quite a trip, and the Brits mentioned wanting to see a show or two while they’re here.

I am officially not bothered by the fact that I’m still in the office at 7PM. This could be because I know I have a bathroom and a kitchen to clean when I get home, and who really looks forward to that kind of thing?

Damon has an entertaining blog post on his site regarding to the nonsense of happy hour, and the variations he would offer, so I thought I’d share it with the rest of you alcoholics.

“Slightly Peeved and Perturbed Hour” - You get 60 minutes to drink your way into a memory lapse to forget the week’s stupidity. I got to go with Captain Morgan & Coke on this one.

“Emphatically Euphoric and Delighted Hour”- We’ll serve up that fru-fru garbage happy people all love. Pitchers of ‘fuzzy navels’ or ’sex-on-the-beach’ should shut ‘em up.

“Crazed and Out of Your Freakin’ Mind Hour”- Tequila shots aaaaaalll around. Buenas noches, mi amigo.

“Anxiety and Paranoia Hour”- I figure an Irish Coffee should fill the bill. I’m pretty sure the alcohol and the caffeine cancel each other right out. Just like the voices in your head. And if it doesn’t, you won’t worry about being seen leaving the bar with who’s left at 2 am.

“Lonely and Depressed Hour”- Just for fun, I’ve decided to 2 for 1 draft beer is painfully appropriate. You know, that tear in your beer thing. Oh, and each table will only have one chair, so you can sit alone in all your solitary pathetic glory.

“Totally Ticked Hour”- This could be scary. I’ll have to post a disclaimer (and an armed guard). With a bar full of angry workin’ stiffs and enraged alcoholics, I’m servin’, you guessed it, Jack Daniels and Grand Marnier. Just wind ‘em up and watch ‘em go.

Note : Dart league canceled during “Totally Ticked Hour.”

Read the full post here.

Yes, I’m alive. And I know I apologize every time I fail to post after a few months, but I mean it this time. And hopefully - let’s not kid ourselves by saying ‘definitely’ - I’ll be able to keep it up this time.

Work is busy, busy, busy as we near the end of our third quarter. I’ve become project manager for the integration process of Salesforce.com and Eloqua, a role which means I’m working closely with our Director of Sales Operations, a really nice young guy who recently quit smoking and therefore chews about 384 pieces of nicotine gum per day, and the company Webmaster - her actual title eludes me right now, but that’s basically what it is - who is a charming young woman who’s from Pakistan. This being one of my objectives, I’m pleased to say that the process was completed on Monday, leaving us with only basic testing to do.

My other objective involved applying ’search engine optimization’ techniques to our two web sites. I’m pleased to note that the initial phases of this project, ie adding the correct keywords, description, and so forth, to each of the many pages, is complete and is merely awaiting approval - the story of my life here. Seems like there’s always something that needs to be approved before further action may be taken. That’s the bureaucratic process for you!

With regard to home life, generally I’m happy at the way things are working out. We’re hoping to take a weekend away next month or in November, just the two of us, no phones, no nothing. We haven’t had a weekend away in … well, a long time. And we need it - rekindling the romance, and all that. We had a rather large problem arise this week, which exhausted both of us emotionally and physically, and hopefully we can move past that.

We will also be going to London in December to visit our newly-out friend. I’m so proud of her!

In the meantime, I’m at work and should probably cease this to do something more work-related. ‘Til next time.

If ever it’s a Wednesday night and you decide to go have a glass of wine with your coworkers, and then go hang out at the Sheraton bar, and then go to a pool hall, and then troop on over to the Hilton for drinks and dancing …

… don’t do it.

Middle of the week partying just doesn’t work for me anymore.