Yes, on both accounts. My friends are a mix of role-players and regular gamers who just like to blow stuff up in various games. The girlfriend has numerous interests; her fascination with role-playing is understandable, because she's currently studying anthropology.

Role-playing isn't that weird. You're just trying to tell a story within the game, that's all. Nobody thinks machinima are weird, yet those are almost exactly the same as what role-playing is (generally) attempting to accomplish: a story that uses the game engine as the medium, much like film or printed text are used to convey other stories.

It does create problems, of course. Just as certain actors tend towards self-centered behavior, some role-players can be a bit... elitist (and that's putting it mildly). It's mostly an argument about the story, what fits in the game setting and what doesn't, what is plausible, etc. Most of our debates orient around psychology, sociology, and anthropology, sometimes veering off into metaphysics and cosmology.

The only delusion most of us suffer from is that we think we are good writers.

But hell, you can see the results of that delusion outside of gaming all the time. Some of the Star Trek fanfic out there is... bleh.