Rink Uncle

I realized I'd not saved this story from last week, so I thought I'd blog it..

At the Sunday competition last week I was watching some of the competitors and talking with my little buddy Mariah. Mariah's friend Sveta was sitting next to her. We had the following exchange:

Sveta: (looking at me) Who are you?
Me: My name is Gordon.
Sveta: (turning to Mariah) Is he your dad?!
Mariah: No, he's a skater!
Me: I'm kind of the rink uncle.
Sveta: Huh?
Mariah: Yeah, he's the rink uncle!

Or something like that. So now it's official ;-) I'm the rink uncle. It kind of makes sense. Other than coffee club sessions, there is only one other adult male figure skater besides myself (my friend José), and he's usually only there on Wednesday nights. So all the kids know me from seeing me out there practicing all the time, and I become a court of last resort/arbiter/ear/"uncle". It's really kind of neat, actually.