My Inexcusable Absence

As I read what seems like the nth case of people that for some strange reason drifted together and then tore each other apart. People clearly not destined to be together but who still gave it the college try. I am depressed to miss my friend's aluminum anniversary. I have no one to blame but myself for this atrocious error in Friendship but here is my excuse. I am a procrastinator. This is usually only a problem. In that the week before exams I'm really stressed as I learn an entire course load of materials in a matter of days. All well and good generally if you can stand the late nights, the thousands of pages and the taste of over-caffeinated beverages. Unfortunately, my habit always arises around the end of November and start of December and Mid-April. The problem you see with the Mid-April cram session is that it coincides with Easter and my mother's birthday. I am usually okay with just calling my mother and wishing her well and saying I won't be home for Easter. So one crisis averted. The Novdec however is a problem as two of my best friends chose rather inconveniently to be born during exam / study time. Now, I cannot really blame them for the consequences of their birth. I mean an argument could be made for being premature or late but this is tenuous at best. I had always been able to celebrate their birthdays in the past because high school did not require much studying and then I could always take a day off at home to wish them well. More recently I had a distance argument. To travel to the Soo from London via Greyhound is a truly gruelling trek. If you intend to make it you will need noise cancelling headphones a new 14 hour playlist (pack batteries as required), money for the minimum four food stops, roughly 175 dollars, infiinite patience for the guy passed out on your shoulder, a flask of alcohol just in case the situation deteriorates any further, a mild head cold to avoid smelling the air, and a moderate sense of when things are going south on the bus. After I had laid out that I would love to come see my friends and that I would never use school as a reason to not enjoy the pleasure of their company I would state the greyhound defence. Until this year, this was very effective and then an odd thing happened. McKelvie you see had big city dreams, he needed the bright lights and he moved to Toronto. Now, the Toronto to London trip by any means of transportation in any weather is at most 3 hours. It is usually 2 and it is thankfully, usually express. I really have no excuse not to go to Toronto to visit him at this point. I have in fact been to visit a certain doctor candidate already this year.
So as his birthday approaches McKelvie mentions that AndyMac and Paco are also coming up to celebrate and it happens to be our 10th year of being a group of friends and wouldn't I love to come. Now, here's the sticky thing I said no. It was totally unjustifiable! School will always be here I suppose no matter how much your tuition is but memories with all your friends become more fleeting as the years go on. So I'd like to take this opportunity to sincerely appologize for my absence and as an act of contrition when I return home to Sault Ste. Marie the first round is on me. I am also open to negotiations on Christmas Presents (bribery) for my horrendous actions.

Sidenote: The only other defence I could think of was that our exchange student from New Zealand pointed out that they do not have school over November and December...and therefore it is an instiutionalized problem with the Canadian School System that is really to blame.

Yours very truly,

Yegway