Dating someone with a weird hobby
The thing about weird hobbies is, every hobby is weird if you think about it enough. How weird is it to get emotionally involved in watching someone else play a sport on television? Pretty weird. Is it really that much less weird than collecting stamps or being a history buff for one specific battle that happened two hundred years ago?
Frankly, I find the only thing that's truly weird is someone who doesn't have a hobby. Most of the time, if you dig far enough, you will find out that their hobby is actually "watching television." BORING.
That being said, it can be difficult to work around someone's weird hobby. Some people just can't shut up about their hobby. You know how it is. Every conversation eventually circles around back to it. It's like driving on a rutted road, where you keep trying to pull the car up onto the sides, but it keeps inevitably sliding back into those ruts. You can't get away. Those people, you might want to think about pulling the plug on things.
Everyone loves to talk about their hobby, of course. You don't have to feign interest, but you can at least be open to it. Try to understand what it is they love about their hobby. See it through their eyes. Who knows, you might become a fan yourself. At the very, VERY least, be respectful of it simply because it's something that means a lot to them.
The reverse is also true. Be open and honest about your own hobbies, but don't be overbearing. It's tough, I know, especially when you have a captive audience!
Image courtesy Flickr/mararie