My reaction was similar. Later I found they were useful as a communication medium when you worked in a team that were doomed to use Java or C++; walking may be a natural thing for you that wouldn't need an explanation, but knowing that action is called "walking" helps when you explain to someone how you get to somewhere.
Of course, if you're using more succinct programming languages, it may be much faster and accurate to write a line or two of the actual code to show what you mean, rather than remembering all those names of the patterns.
> Do I get bonus points for not really seeing much point to the Singleton pattern when I read the GoF book?
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Don't spend it all in once place.
I still haven't decided what that means about me as a programmer.