God forgive me, I am jealous of my cat!

Is it a sin to covet the life of your cat? If so, I am probably going to hell. It's so hard Monday mornings to look at her, sitting smugly on the foot of my bed, watching me as a fumble towards my closet looking for something that isn't wrinkled and matches. As a journalist and a mom, my life is filled with deadlines: get child up and vertical, make sure he brushes teeth and has clothes on right-side out, feed him and the pets, shove child gently into car - making sure all of his homework is done and signed and then head off to school without getting a speeding ticket.

From there it's a matter of hitting deadlines for both the print product and the web site. In the meantime I have to remember deadlines for special projects, columns, blogs and more. After I make it across the finish line for the day (if there isn't a night meeting) then I race home to pick up son at farm, get supper on the table, do homework, attend other meetings for organizations other than Gannett and fall into bed.

My cat's daily agenda is a little more sedentary: wake up, visit litter box, whine for food, eat, visit litter box again, climb stairs, pick out bed for morning nap, wake up, visit litter box and food bowl again, find room where afternoon sun is pouring in, take nap in sunshine, sit at door and wait arrival of humans and begin whining and casting baleful looks at them until food bowl is replenished, visit litter box again, take nap on young child's backpack, visit litter box and food bowl again for a nightcap, find most comfortable bed in house and wait for lights to be turned out.

How can you not envy this lifestyle. My idea of a perfect, stress-free day? Let's see - husband takes child to school while I sleep in until 7 a.m., read the newspaper while leisurely enjoying the quietness of an empty house, watch a movie without interruption, eat a light lunch, head outside to the hammock or a breezy beach with a good book and blanket. And for supper? Why, it will be lovingly prepared and served by my husband, of course. And then I wake up and realize it's all just a dream and the cat is still waiting for her breakfast. But I can dream can't I?