[KyleGoetz]

I remember a bit more about the lesson the professor used to explaint to me. She talked about how when you are late to class and explain to the professor:

バスが遅かったから
バスが遅かったので

that the blame is placed implicitly on different causes—one is you and the other is the bus(driver). Maybe I'm getting the "sounds like it's your fault" wrong and it's something else. But the explanation of から as linking and ので as consequential rings a very muffled bell in the back of my memorybox.