You know you're a skater when..

[Sierra]

..you sit on one butt cheek because the other is sore from falling.
..you never get cold in movie theaters.
..you do spirals and axels in family-size restrooms.
..you look at a shirt you want and calculate how many hours of skating lessons it'll cost you.

[kiwiskater]

..you spend lots of money on/own many things which are made of gel
..you own a pair of boots that are more expensive than any pair of shoes you'll ever look at buying
..you watch programmes like the Winter Olympics and you analyse every move and try to figure out how to replicate it
..you're addicted to skatingforums.com

[AgnesNitt]

...when someone sets you up with a man the first thing you ask is "can he skate?"
...if he can, you ask "does he have his own boots?"

[aussieskater]

.. everything in your wardrobe is lycra, or cotton stretch, or fleecy - or all three at once.
.. when you're invited out somewhere nice and have "nothing to wear", you wonder if your ice dance dress would do.

..you own a pair of boots that are more expensive than any pair of shoes you'll ever look at buying

...but on a cost per wear basis, they're cheap!!

[Isk8NYC]

... you actually LISTEN to the movies' background music, hoping to find a new skating song
... listening to music often involves imagining skating to the song.
... you have an backpack of skating clothes in your car trunk, just in case you decide to go skating.
... you can get up at 4am for a freestyle more easily than 7am for the school bus.

[davincisop]

- You go to the store or run errands in your skating clothes after practice and think nothing of it.
- you are THAT person wearing uggs and leggings after skating practice because you were cold and people give you a crazy look (bonus points if you're in florida)
- every conversation ultimately turns into figure skating
- your friends at the rink are either much older than you or much younger than you
- you work at the ice rink to support your skating a la ice princess

[chowskates]

~ more than 90% of your friends on Facebook are skaters (or skating-related)
~ the first thing you think of when deciding where to go on vacation is: :is there a rink there?"
~ you bring your skates everywhere you travel ...
    ... failing which, you end up buying a new pair of skates just so that you can skate
~ when you go shopping you think, "can I wear that to skate?"

[Isk8NYC]

... you have playlists on your music device for various skating workouts/listening.
... you know for whom most of the wackier jumps were named.
... you win a Scrabble word challenge of the word "dasher" by explaining it's another name for the rink walls, not the proper name of Santa's Reindeer.

[Sierra]

... you win a Scrabble word challenge of the word "dasher" by explaining it's another name for the rink walls, not the proper name of Santa's Reindeer.

I didn't know dasher was another name for rink walls, lol!

..you skip happily to the store to buy ankle weights, anticipating that night's sit spin workout.
(ok, maybe not everyone skips happily at the thought of off ice. but still. )

[Crabcakes]

All of these are precious ways to know you are skaters!

Well, I know I am a grandmother of a skater, because I have not bought myself a pair of shoes or clothes in over a year because I pay for:
lessons for two girls
skates for two girls
skate dresses and tights for two girls
skills competitions for two girls
skills competition photos for two girls
snacks, drinks and lunches out every Saturday because skating makes them hungry

And, I spend ALL day every Saturday at the rink, with my laptop, while they take lessons and skate in the public skate. Plus I take them to skate almost whenever they ask! 

[katz in boots]

Fun!  Here's some more

You know when you're a skater when;

*  whenever you have to stand around, you're on one leg, practising spin positions, changes of edge, step sequences etc
*  when you hear someone on tv mention choctaws or mohawks you assume the program is about skating
*  you decline social invitations because; "sorry, I have synchro practice that day"
*  you have shelves of fabric that you bought cos it might work for a costume one day
*  the floor of your spare room sparkles from glittery fabric, dropped hotfix crystals etc from making costumes(the vacuum just can't get every bit up)
*  your make up bag carries some unusual coloured eyeshadows, lipstick colours & glitter
*  all recent photos are of you in a skating dress holding a trophy or medal

[SillyAdultSkater]

- You buy an iPod shuffle just for skating

- You're making backups of all your computer data and the first thing you put on the disk is your programme music

- You're disappointed by not bruising easily enough lately 

- You don't think in terms of standing on the inside or outside of your foot but in terms of "outside edge and inside edge" whenever you find yourself aware of your feet outside the rink

[SillyAdultSkater]

All of these are precious ways to know you are skaters!
(...)
And, I spend ALL day every Saturday at the rink, with my laptop, while they take lessons and skate in the public skate. Plus I take them to skate almost whenever they ask! 

Wish I had you for grandma when I was a kid...!

[spiralina]

*you look at all items of clothing wondering, "could my partner skate in that?" - even the women's clothes
*you walk through footwork sequences at the bus stop
*you get odd looks on the train as your notebook is full of stick men ideas for lifts (for the uninitiated it looks like extracts from the Karma Sutra)
*99% of your Facebook statuses relate to skating
*you visit Skatingforums on your cellphone
*you'd rather have [insert element here] for your birthday than... just about anything

[Sierra]

...When unable to find your parents after the skating show, you momentarily consider just staying at the rink and skating all night.
...When you move an arm, clouds of sparkles come flying off your costume.

[spiralina]

...When you move an arm, clouds of sparkles come flying off your costume.

...or off your regular clothes from secondary transfer!

[Teresa]

-the car seems to drive to the rink by itself =-)
-that you need to explain your bruises to your doctor
-gifts from friends and family tend to be skating related
-getting up at 4:00 a.m. seems normal until you tell a nonskater (The look of horror clues you in.)
-you have RINK, car and home music
-that your skate bag looks like a vacation bag (It contains everything just in case.)

[kiwiskater]

...you give up going to your favourite xmas party because it clashes with a lesson
...you go to xe.com to calculate how much that skating item costs in NZ$ and how much it will costs to get through customs and if it would be cheaper to take a holiday in a country that stocks skate gear and bring it home with you

[Sk8tmum]

...  you schedule your vacations around trips to the skate fitter
... you can debate the relative merits of different types of hair glitter
... you can get intensely caught up in discussions over the benefits of lacing OVER rather than UNDER
... you carry fleece and UnderArmour in your trunk year round

[Sierra]

...your fingers are too cold to untie your skate laces.

... you can get intensely caught up in discussions over the benefits of lacing OVER rather than UNDER

And non-skaters have absolutely no idea what you're talking about and why it's so important, at which point you look blankly at the non-skater.

[fsk8r]

... you'll take a snow day from work, but not from skating

[AgnesNitt]

... you can get intensely caught up in discussions over the benefits of lacing OVER rather than UNDER

I do both. Under on the bottom two hooks, over on the top. It works for me.

[FigureSpins]

... you choose "Choctaw" when testing a new system's Ethnicity and Race section. 
... since "Mohawk" wasn't an option, I chose "other" and wrote it in!
... for "first language," I wrote in "Figure Skating."

[slcbelle]

- You buy a portable DVD player for the training and technique videos you keep buying (because you don't have a laptop with DVD player or own a DVD player anymore)
- Your feet become ugly and deformed in spots
- Almost all of your Internet activity is skating related:  Icenetwork, eBay for dresses, skating shops, custom dress designers, YouTube, Skating Forums, Facebook skating groups, USFSA, boot and blade manufacturers, etc.
- You could spend hours on iTunes searching for music for future programs.  Programs that are years away from even being considered!
- You hobble off the ice in pain thinking "I don't know if I can test in 3 weeks.  My foot is KILLING me.  And it's looking really bad!" but by the time you get home, you know you will go back to the rink the next day and practice more and test in 3 weeks regardless.
- You realize all you talk about is skating so you try to keep in more on the down low but you can't!
- You change your standard workout routines to "off-ice training".  If it doesn't benefit skating, why bother?
- All of your pants are tight in the thighs.
- When a hockey camp comes and invades your rink for a week, you get depressed and antsy because your typical sessions aren't available.

[SynchKat]

- You've gone to the grocery store in full synchro competition make up and only realized when you got home and looked in the mirror why people were staring at you
- You can do full compo make up and synchro bun in about 5 minutes
- You look at the latest crop of prom dresses and think, that would be a great skating dress
- You can pick out a rink anywhere by just the look of a building
- You drop skating related things into conversations and wonder why the person you are conversing with is looking at you oddly and they eventually ask for an explanation
- You sometimes downplay your involvement in skating to avoid the whole, "do you know how to X", or "do you know X" convos...and usually you will know the person