Categorize Away!

So I have to say that I hate the idea and love the idea of grouping myself in a category of people... you know, classifying myself as this or that, but there are times that I look at the different groups I like to consider myself a part of, and I love it.

I am a teacher, and last night I was at a bar, playing Texas Hold'em with 9 other teachers from my building. Now... I have posted before about teaching and how much I love it, but it is EXHAUSTING... so at the end of the week we need to let loose. When we left school we vowed to keep the school talk away from our poker game and girls night out, but... if any of you have teacher friends, that is honestly all that we can talk about. It was soooo much fun though, because my building is diverse age wise, so you had anywhere from 24 to 55 year olds hanging out, drinking, and dancing it up until 1:00 in the morning... yeah... 1:00... which is insane considering that we were at school at like 7:30 AM that day and had to deal with Friday-squirrely kids all day. It was awesome.

I am a runner, and there is something to be said about going to a distance race that can be compare to nothing else. 5Ks don't give me that feel, but anything 10K or above, there is just a sense of commaradarie, and people just understand each other and this obsession that they are involved in! You know automatically that you have something to talk about when you are in a group of runners. I recently went to a wedding shower in which my friend Jen sat me next to her friend Emily and said "She's run the marathon too... she's a runner... you'll get along". She was right and Emily and I talked the entire time (a little too loudly probably), and had a blast.

I am a fan... I love to obsess over different things. Lately it has been One Tree Hill and Southern Gothic Productions, but it has turned into something other than liking a television show or a production company. It became meeting new people and talking to them about all this random stuff that I probably wouldn't talk about with anyone else. It is a community of people, and that just astounds me at times. I didn't think that I'd get to chat with people from around the world or even in the next state over and get excited to check if they commented on my blog or see if they added something to fanpop... I barely know most of these internet people, but I like them already!

So yeah... sometimes grouping yourself is a negative thing, but in this case, it is something that I love because it feels like a home, a community.