hiding from email

I got another email from a "friend" at home today. Friend is in inverted commas because I don't really like her. She's perfectly nice, but I don't find her company remotely interesting. I'm still "friends" with her, though, because I feel obliged to be nice to her, since she has a lot of problems and thinks of me as a real friend. This would be probably the 10th? 15th? one since the last time I wrote (last year). I keep meaning to reply, but somehow I've gone from loving receiving mail, to feeling like every message is a demand I just want to hide from.
I can't even reply to emails from people I like, though. I did finally answer the 4th or 5th email from a friend I like a lot today. I was thinking that maybe that would make me feel more accomplished and I'd have the motivation to return at least a couple more messages. Unfortunately, as soon as I flicked through my list of emails I need to reply to, I was back to feeling overwhelmed.
I actually started to write a reply to S's email from almost a month ago; maybe that was what drained my motivation. I got as far as apologising for not replying sooner before I realised that I still have absolutely no idea what to say. I want to say "no, I don't want to meet up with you" but I really don't want to hurt his feelings, so I think I'm still trying to convince myself it wouldn't be terrible to see him again. It wouldn't, but it would make it harder to avoid the next time, and I don't want another "friend" I feel obliged to spend time in uncomfortable silence or awkward, stilted conversation with. I guess I'm also still trying to come up with a way to say no, that would be less painful than just "no".
My problem with email is that as soon as I send a long-delayed reply, I'll barely have time to feel accomplished and bask in the emptiness of my inbox, before it's filled again. And I really don't have enough to say to be able to write again straight away.
I'm still doing slightly better with emailing blogfriends, but I'm slowly accumulating emails in my blog inbox, too (I'm sorry!). I really like email, and I appreciate people writing to me. Whenever I get email, I'm all excited and think about what I want to say in return, because I want to keep talking with people. I don't know why I'm so slow to actually write my thoughts down and continue the conversation. I guess every form of communicating with people just seems like too much of an effort sometimes, which is why I end up hiding in my room, complaining about being lonely. I suck.