Longtime readers (and certainly my Facebook friends and Twitter followers) may have noticed that I sometimes have a tendency to gripe about my job. Occasionally. From time to time. Okay, often. That’s because… well, because it’s what I do. I’m the sort who vents about the things that irritate me, rather than bottling it all up, and lots of things irritate me during the course of your average day. Not to mention what it’s like on not-average days, which seem to come up in my line of employment with distressing frequency, especially during the warmer months, when the livin’ is supposed to be easy — or so we’ve been led to believe — but for some reason always seem to be the most hectic time of the year for me. You know, The Girlfriend and I are currently making our way through the original Twilight Zone, the classic TV series created by Rod Serling that ran from 1959 to ’64 (as opposed to the various revival attempts of more recent years) and I find it grimly amusing that so far in Season One alone, there’ve been two episodes dealing with stressed-out advertising executives who yearn for escape to a simpler, slower-paced, more humane way of life. I don’t know if Serling ever worked in advertising himself, but he definitely understood the environment. I can’t tell you how many days I have when I basically feel just like this:(In case you’re wondering, that animation comes from a really great blog called This Advertising Life, which seeks to convey “the emotions of a working life in advertising as told through gifs.” I don’t know how funny it might be for civilians who don’t work in the industry, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s dead-on-target ROTFL time. Browse through it a little bit and perhaps you’ll begin to understand why I get so frazzled and grumpy.)

Believe it or not, though, I really don’t dislike my job, despite the impression I probably give with all the bitching. I often get insanely frustrated with it, true, but in the big-picture view, there are actually a lot of great things about working where I do, and I know I don’t talk enough about those things. For example, in the almost-seven years I’ve been with this particular agency, I have met an astounding number of smart, creative, interesting, quirky, funny, extremely cool (and frequently very attractive, which is a nice bonus) human beings. I’ve even been fortunate enough to become friends with some of these people, and by “friends” I mean the sort of people who actually welcome you into their homes and introduce you to their children and pets.

One such person is a lovely woman named Diane Olson. Her background is in journalism, but her passion is in the natural world, specifically the things that live in her (and everybody else’s) own backyard. (I’m pretty confident I’m not likely to ever meet anyone who knows more about gardening than Diane.) For 17 years, she combined these aspects of her character to produce a regular column called “Urban Almanac” for Catalyst magazine, Salt Lake’s local alternative monthly. Then, in an completely unexpected bolt from the blue about two years ago, she was approached by a local publishing house about turning that column into a full-length book. It took her much wailing and gnashing of teeth to crank it out while also holding down a demanding agency gig, but somehow she pulled it off, and now, finally, that book is available for everyone reading this to purchase!

A Nature Lover’s Almanac: Kinky Bugs, Stealthy Critters, Prosperous Plants & Celestial Wonders is a nifty little volume of collected science factoids and gardening tips, one for each day of the year, some of which are truly obscure and mind-boggling. For instance, did you know grasshoppers are at their loudest when the air is 95 degrees, and they can’t sing at all below 62? (That’s the entry for August 19th; it’s a small thing, but it fascinates me… I mean, why?) The book is sized like a pocket field guide, with rounded corners so it’ll slide in and out of your pocket easily and a sturdy flat binding, and it’s beautifully illustrated by another Catalyst alum, Adele Flail. If you have any interest at all in nature or in growing things — or even if you just enjoy looking at something fun and breezy over breakfast every morning — I highly recommend it.

Diane told me once it’s been her lifelong dream to write a book and see her name on a shelf at her local library; she’s positively giddy now that it’s happened, and I am very, very happy for her. She’s managed to do what pretty much every copywriter (and certainly this particular proofreader) in the advertising business aspires to do: she’s become a published author. And the least I can do for my friend is congratulate her and give her a plug with whatever modest audience I happen to reach with this forum. If you think you might be interested in A Nature Lover’s Almanac, you can see all the details about it on the publisher’s page here, and you can order it through Amazon.com here.

Oh, one final note: I don’t think Diane will mind if I note that I helped out with the book’s title. The “celestial wonders” part was my suggestion. And yes, I’m pretty proud of that… now what are you waiting around here for? Go buy yourself a copy! (I have two copies myself!)