Thanks to you both!
To clarify, Nikkou, red belt is actually pretty high. As one of the black belts put it to me today, that's the first step into the higher ranks. Let's put it this way- between me and black belt are the ranks of red with one and with two black stripes, respectively. Granted, there's a lot to do in those two ranks, so I won't expect to make black belt for a couple more years, yet. But I'm getting steadily closer, with this one.
Red belts are in fact commonly used as teacher aides in class to prepare them for eventually having to take charge on their own as a black belt. That's why I made the comment about expecting to be asked to do so more often. In fact, I have the additional factor of not only being a red belt, but being an adult red belt. So many of the ones we have are older kids or teens. A grown-up is given additional authority on the mat due to their age, you see.
I'm telling you, I was practically bouncing off the walls, afterwards.... I'm much calmer now, it being several hours later, but I'm still extremely happy. The only fly in the ointment is that I now have a stiff muscle at the back of my upper leg, I assume the result a kick that went higher than expected (clear over the other person's head). But even that's not so stiff as it was a little while ago. I strongly suspect that I'm now going to be called on to assist and demonstrate and overall take on an authority position more often in class, now.... But we'll see, huh? Me, I'm just happy that I got the belt at all. Very happy indeed. 
