It's good to be the cat.

It's Caturday, and a busy one Chez Rebel. I had to go to work today for an Open House. This was the first time I had to organize an 'event' that involved inviting people from off campus. Unless you've done this kind of thing at an institution as bureaucratic as this one... you have no idea what it entails. I had to get approval to use the space, I had to get approval to use the parking lot. And of course another event had already reserved the parking lot closest to our building, so I had to reserve the lot much farther away, and personally put out a bread-crumb-esque trail of signs for our event. I had to create the invitations (which, surprise, also needed to be approved by the university) and distribute it to several universities, follow up with them, solicit RSVPs, respond to the RSVPs etc. etc.

I was also in charge of arranging the catering. Always a tough call - order too much food and you've wasted money & food, order too little and you look either cheap or totally unprepared. So it's important to track RSVPs... but that doesn't even help because people who RSVP don't always show up, and people show up who didn't RSVP. It actually worked out that we had just enough pizza, but a whole lot more salad than we needed. Then there was all the information I had to get together to distribute to the students. It all worked out okay, but man it was stressful trying to make sure I thought of everything. Seriously, it threatened to cut into my blog surfing time. ;)

Meanwhile, Sally had a rough day of her own.

You know, sometimes I feel bad that I'm so.... forgive me... pussy-whipped. I get up at 4 or 5 every morning to feed her, and she's even got me spending the big bucks on a special raw food diet. And try as I might, I can't stick to keeping her on a diet. But then, I started comparing our lives.

My major responsibilities:

go to work

pay bills

volunteer

file tax returns,

vote, generally participate in democracy

attempt to stay apprised of world news and current events

buy groceries ( including the special cat food I can only get at the pet supply store)

wash dishes (including Sally's dishes)

vacuum (the inch deep layer of Sally's fur all over the apartment)

Take out the trash / recycling / compost

generally clean house (& Sally's litter pan)

stay up on my car's service & maintenance

make sure Sally gets her vaccinations & regular check ups

try to fight the good fight against global warming, poverty, aids, racial or religious intolerance (Starving Kitties in Iraq etc.)

And of course do all those fun things that make life worth living, hang out with friends, keep in contact with family, spend time on my hobbies etc.

Sally's major responsibilities:

Eat

Sleep

Lick self inappropriately when guests come over.

As she sleeps upwards of 18 hours a day, she's always well rested enough to engage in her favorite activity of all - insisting I feed her. And, cold blooded murder that she is, she has no moral qualms with biting me, scratching me, or waking me up at the crack of dawn to achieve her goals. I'm just no match for that kind of single purposed focus of mind and body. So she wins, and I feed her. Whatcha gonna do?

I just pray to whatever god is in charge of reincarnation, that I get to be a cat next time around.