Can You Help A Girl Out?

No. If everything is in proper operating condition, it is not normal. There are specifications for the sending unit measured in ohms. Likewise for the temperature gauge. If either is bad, that could be your false reading. I would say verify that it is indeed overheating. Try to find someone with an infa red heat gun and get a measurement of the temperature close to the sending unit. That should nail it down one way or the other. I would suspect that if the engine was indeed in the area that the gauge indicates, the coolant temperature would be in excess of 200 degrees.