Walking in my characters shoes,boots, whatever!

How many of you writers find yourselves so immersed in your characters that you can't seperate youself from them? At times I find myself distracted to the point of not being able to think about much else. I am working out scenes between characters, listening to them laugh, talk, fight, resolve things. I once read something to the fact that a good character is one that has been lived in by the author. You take that character with you and try to imagine them in certain situations: buying groceries, standing in line at the bank, wandering around a museum, etc. This is how you bring them to life on the page. If that is the case my characters are jumping off the page! They live with me 24/7, much to the chagrin of my husband who finds himself asking me on more than one occasion "where did you just go?" How do I explain to him that I inhabit two worlds and I try to balance my time in each one. Is that creativity or schizophrenia? I am really not sure.

Ah the life of a writer.