I can't, I'm working

Dear Bono,

You're a busy man.  I'm sure you're constantly torn in multiple directions trying to figure out the best balance and the right prioritization (hint: sometimes it's just getting the new album done already).  Welp, Bono, you area not alone!  I am also very busy.  Indeed, I work hours and hours and hours and hours a day, then also every 3rd night.  And every 3rd weekend.  Nonstop.  Ahh, the life of a surgical trainee.  It's actually kind of appalling when I tell people about it.  So much so, that I can't believe that it is my life and I am living it.  (This is also the experience I had last weekend when I was telling a visiting pediatric surgeon from Nigeria about healthcare in the U.S., and how we can't get everyone coverage, and how physician reimbursements are-like how surgeons don't get paid for seeing a patient that had surgery within 30 days because it's part of a global fee, etc, and the more I told him about it the more he said "this is not right" and I just had to agree.  But I digress.)

Anyway, there have been many MANY events over the past 9 years of my life that I have missed due to medical school or residency.  Family reunions (in Costa Rica, no less), birthdays (I have not yet met my 15 month old nephew), holidays (I made it home for 1 Christmas in the past 5 years.  That was worth it though-it was a surprise and my husband and I showed up at his home for Christmas Eve dinner and my home on Christmas morning.  Worth the $2000 bucks for tickets.  No Thanksgivings.)  A friend of mine is getting married in December and I just was looking at the RSVP.  Probably can't go because it's over the holiday schedule, and a reception in Las Vegas is on a Friday and I can't make it there because it is 4 hrs away when I work every night until 7pm, and then the one in DC (a 1 hr flight) is on a Monday night, so also not going to happen.  Why must my life always be "I can't, I'm working?"

Bono, I need to find a job that will let me sometimes answer "sure, I can make it.  And I can help set up/clean up too!"

-JP