Fellas,

Obviously I have not posted in a while. About four plus months actually. I have not felt comfortable around everyone, but I want to take this opportunity to get some things off my chest. For starters, I want to let everyone know that I am writing this email in a tone that I would address a brother with. Meaning, I need to clear the air, and I don't plan to lose any friends because of this.

Since our last night together, I had really hoped that time would eventually heal my pride. But all that has happened is that I resigned myself to the fact that I was not going to be at any group functions for a long while. And then something funny happened last week.

You all know me. Which is to say you know I am messy and cheap. So last weekend in Vegas, when Eleah and I were getting ready to go out, i was putting on my nicest pants and emptied my pockets in the process. Of course I don't like to go out big too often so the last time I wore these slacks was our last night in Chicago. And of course, I did not get them dry cleaned so everything from then was there.

So you can imagine my surprise to find the Japana receipt crumpled, torn but still readable in my pocket. When I realized what it was I did not inspect it immediately because, honestly, I loathe my memories of that night. I have not forgotten how I was isolated, ostracized and embarrassed by my best friends.

The images of my friends fighting me, slapping me and screaming into the faces of the girls I had just asked to be in my wedding, have stuck with me. (On a side note, did no one realize that my plan was to propose to eleah only two weeks before this Chicago trip so that I could tell everyone face to face and ask everyone face to face to be in my wedding, including the girls there that night - girls Eleah grew up with?)

So I put the receipt away and forgot about it.

Until today when I did my work expense statement for my trip to Vegas. I looked at the tab, looked at the math and tried to make sense of it. There was just one item I could not figure out on that tab, a phrase called "MIN DIFEREN". So I called Japana and said I had a business meeting there a few weeks back and had to identify for accounting the meaning of this phrase.

The manager informed me that because we had a reservation for the lobby, there was a minimum charge of 75 dollars per person. (Sound Familiar?). So the "MIN DIFEREN" was the amount needed to be charged to reach $75 times the number of people in our party.

I then told him we were aware of that, BUT because the waitress was so slow and poor that night a lot of us open up tabs at the bar (Which I did do like many of my friends). He informed me that the bar tab should have counted against the required $75, especially because the service was under par. He then asked if I had my bar receipt but alas I do not. And that is not the important part to me. This is the important part...

Total required to be reached by Japana = 75 * 16 = $1200 (Note they added one extra person because they knew we were drunk idiots)
Total of "MIN DIFEREN" = $727
Total on Tab that was not directly mine or Faust's (think Moet faust) = $ 313
NOTE: $ 313 for 5 girls plus some beers and whiskeys which I know was not their's.

No one lied.

No one over charged.

Everyone paid there fair part.

We were just too stupid drunk to read the tab and inform them that due to their service we opened up bar tabs. (Plus they added one extra person)

The result? We blamed the people we did not know and punished one of our own for being the immediate contact.

That was wrong. Rarely in my life have I been treated like that. And never have I been treated like that by my best friends. I hope we never do it again because it has fucked with my mind and put significant distance around myself.

So when I came home after Chicago and saw the videos from Jan 2nd, with everyone playing grab ass in the hotel, I could not believe it. First we all act that way, then we act like it did not even happen. That hurt.

Cause it did happen. It was wrong and you can all go fuck yourselves.

But you all are my closest friends. And I don't plan on losing a single friend because of this. I just needed to let you all know how I felt.

ps. I could not get to kinkos but will go and email the pdf of the receipt to anyone who wants it.