Assumption is something I feel bears some discussion. "The mother of all fuck ups", some term it as being. Given the way people tend to over-react, I'd be inclined to agree. Perhaps not on such an extreme level, but let's face it, all it takes is one statement by someone amongst company to spark a rumour that couldn't be further from the truth. I find it funny to think how frequently I've been caught in the middle of assumptions over the past few weeks. People assume you've been selfish and neglecting their friendship, or they assume you've been stressed, depressed, obsessed, distressed.... The list goes on.

Arguably the funniest assumption to watch people make is the one that involves just who you are and aren't getting sex from. To elaborate, I have a female friend that I'm quite close to. She has a boyfriend, and from what I know of her, would never be the type to be unloyal. You could argue that our friendship is similar to some form of brotherly/sisterly love. Needless to say, she knows I respect her relationship with her boyfriend, and that I wouldn't dare impose on it.

That having been said though, I went to a joint birthday dinner for two friends the weekend before last at Montecasino. All in all, there must have been over twenty people there. At one stage, we'd gone for a walk together to break the monotony of sitting, and she was in a somewhat playful mood. Come one point, she dared me to see if I could carry her weight. And I did, back to the dinner table. Needless to say, everyone saw her in my arms, and I pretty much already knew what rumours were bound to circulate. And circulate they did. They got back to me through friends, eventually, and it left me with a huge grin.

This past weekend saw me attending an 80's night at The Doors with friends, her being amongst them. She was having a fairly bad evening, since she'd been under a ton of stress lately. It lead to me going outside and having a fairly long chat to her. Thereafter, we went back inside to the table our group had essentially commandeered, to find only one chair unoccupied. I offered it to her, but she said that I should rather sit, and she'd sit on my lap. I thought nothing of it, until I saw the looks we were getting from certain people.

Understandably, being in the mood she was in, she wasn't keen to stick it out for incredibly long at the nightclub. So moreover, we ended up being the first two to leave, since I'd given her a lift through. The fact that we'd been outside together alone for the good part of an hour, that she'd been seen sitting on my lap, and that we were the first to leave, set imaginations rolling. You wouldn't have had to be a mindreader to tell what everyone else thought.

Two days later, I've been asked three times about what is going on between her and me. Ironically, I don't believe the people in question believes me when I tell them the honest truth. And I laugh....

It's amazing how we take things for granted. We assume, often incorrectly, without the forethought to second guess our assumptions. To be sure, the topic on my mind is one that I feel bears some thought yet changes nothing.

I had a friend come out of the closet recently. It's funny how you can feel you know a person reasonably well, yet your assumptions can be so far off the mark that it astounds you. That's not to say that it'll change anything between us, but I find it unbelievable how silly some assumptions we can make can be.

He's a great guy to be around. He's the type that'll stick his neck out for his friends' sake, and he is pretty much always straight up about what he believes. I think the amount of balls it takes to finally come to grips with something like that is commendable. It's a situation I'd never want to be in, and I'm glad it's one I won't be faced with. We take small things like that for granted. It's a trial we'll never have to endure, and we don't realise that. Instead, we're happy to simply complain about the opposite sex as if we have it really bad.

Can we even argue that we have it remotely bad? Probably not.

Given lack of sleep over a long enough period of time, and you will experience hindered perception. The line between imagination and reality blurs to a point where you can't quite distinguish between what is true, and what you're actually thinking may be true, hence making interpreting signals people give off even harder.

I tend to think I have a somewhat empathic sense when it comes to people. I can tell when they're sad, hurt, offended, and so on. What I'm stating, however, is I'm fairly sure that this empathic sense isn't something you'd want to attempt to employ when tired, simply because the probability of it being anywhere near as correct as it should be is high.