About me

    My name is Mike Louie and I was born March 31, 1972 in Queens, Astoria, NY.  I'm now living in Lancaster, PA.  I graduated from Don Bosco Prep (Ramsey, NJ) in 1990, and from Millersville University (Millersville, PA) in 1995.  I currently work at Wyeth-Ayerst Pharmaceuticals; a division of American Home Products in Marietta, PA.  At first I was working in the Quality Control Environmental Monitoring section of the plant doing tests on air particles (fungus and bacteria), and on surfaces.  It was a hellish job requiring odd hours and sometimes weekends.  Right now I am in Quality Assurance Information Support.  I am currently System Administrator for several systems on the plant.  I am also owner and head instructor for Millersville Taekwon-Do, for which I've been an instructor of for 9 years. 

    If you haven't noticed I'm an avid autocrosser, but I also love to snow ski, rollerblade, mountain bike, SUSHI and just be me.  I just was married in September 2000, to my wife and best friend Theresa.  We met back in September 1998 just by chance when her and her girlfriend decided to try Taekwon-Do at the college I teach at.  Well I invited everyone to go to see Blade, which just came out, and the only one who wanted to go was Theresa.  She almost cancelled cause she didn't want it to look like a date, and so did I.  Imagine what would have happened?

Mike's 3rd degree black belt test    Mike doing a daffy!!! MAJOR AIR!
                                                    Me at my 3rd degree black belt test (3/98)    Mike doing a daffy!!! MAJOR AIR!<> @ Vernon Valley, NJ

    So we went to dinner first and for some reason everything just worked out perfectly.  I got to know Theresa a little better as we walked around the mall waiting for our table.  I didn't realize there was someone out there like her.  Considering all my bad previous relationships, she just seemed down to Earth and sociable.  So we ate at T.G.I.Fridays and then headed to the movies.

    I had such a great time with Theresa that we got together again on Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.  Saturday Theresa, her friend, and I went to play mini golf at the Village Greens in Strasburg.  That night we also visited another friend of Theresa, Mona.  We stayed up till about 3am also getting some food at Linden Diner in Lancaster.  Almost ended up in a food fight with some other people :)

Mike & Theresa posing with their cars (back in 1998)

    Sunday night we went for a moonlit walk in Strasburg.  Hung out at the elementary school and sat on the swings.  Monday night I invited her over for a home cooked meal and we talked some more.  Wednesday night was the night before I would go away to Atlanta, GA for a car show and that is when we kissed.

    So a year later we went camping in Maryland (and of course I got her parent's permission to ask their daughter's hand in marriage).  This was probably the toughest thing a guy has to do in his life!  We got there and it was thunderstorming and raining hard.  So we snuggled up under the warm blanket.  Next morning we took our mountain bikes to the trails to ride around.  Well Theresa found a spot along the trail to take pictures.  It was a little stream with a bridge of rocks going across.  So I thought this would be perfect.  She got down there, and I pulled out a poem to read to her.  And then I pulled out the ring and tried to get down on one knee, but almost fell into the stream.  That would have been bad.  So after we got back I also had a dozen roses sent to our cabin, which were a little late.  We ended up celebrating by going down to Baltimore and eating at Phillips Restaurant.

    We bought a puppy in February 2000 and a nice home in Lancaster in May 2000, and we married September 2, 2000 at First Presbyterian Church on Orange Street.  We had about 100 guests all family and very close friends.  That weekend was also my Grandparent's 50th Wedding Anniversary and my cousin's 16th Birthday.  Diane and Jon (Theresa's sister) also had Megan on our wedding day at 2am. :)

    For our honeymoon we went to Napa Valley and San Francisco.  We almost didn't want to come back to Lancaster, since the weather was wonderful the whole time there - a bit nippy at night.  The night before we arrived Napa Valley received an earthquake of about 5.5 - we thought we wouldn't have a Bed & Breakfast to stay at.  Luckily everything was ok.  We saw the Napa Valley Wineries, went to a Day SPA!, The Wine Dinner Train, Alcatraz, Fisherman's Wharf, San Jose Tech Museum, rode the trolley, visited San Francisco Chinatown, Underwater Aquarium, Ripley's Believe It or Not, Pier 39, The Wax Museum, Bubba Gumps (restaurant), World War II Submarine, and Rain Forest Cafe.  Also want to thank the California Chews for taking us in for 2 days due to problems with our San Francisco Hotel - DON'T ASK!! :)

    We now have a beautiful daughter Sarah Elizabeth. She is the love of our life right now :)

  
                            Sarah & Nicholas                                Mike & Theresa in Baltimore in 1998

         

Our Wedding Day - September 2, 2000

October 11, 2004

    Well I've been unemployed since Decmber 2, 2003.  I worked at Wyeth Vaccines for 7 years.  The last 3 years were probably the worse and longest job I've ever have.  Being in a cubicle for that long just makes your brain go to mush.

    So in May I finally got started with my life long dream of opening up a TaeKwon-Do school, well actually two.  The first one opened up at the Hempfield Sports Complex in Landisville, PA which is about two blocks from our house.  The second school I happened upon by chance when I was closing up the Millersville school after teaching there as a volunteer instructor for 13 years.  I ran into the head basketball coach asking if I was still teaching TaeKwon-Do and told her the story of me closing the school.  She happened to know someone who was opening a sports complex in Palmyra, Mya Pulgar.  I called her up and she and her co-partmer were estactic to meet me.  Their sports complex was just starting to be built when I met them and they were going to be mainly a cheerleader/gymnastics arena, and they were looking for some male oriented sports.

    So Hempfield School started up the 2nd week of June with five adventurous students - mainly because I can understand that it is unfamilar waters these students and parents were going to be getting into.  July I added two more students, and then by September I have 11 students right now with also a Women's Self Defense course taught Monday mornings.  I am proud of every single one of these students as they have come so far from when they first started.

    The Paramount School didn't start up as well due to the late opening of the building from all the rain we received.  But we perservered and right now I have 5 students (hrm sounds familar), all of who which are very dedicated and talented and happy to have them.  I'm hoping to be working under that roof couple times a week instructing the climbing wall.
April 29, 2005

    Well it's been 2 years since I've updated my life happenings. Too much has happened. My son, Nicholas, was born about 3 months ago. He was happy and healthy. My daughter just turned 2 1/2 years old. And my wife and I will be celebrating our 5 year anniversary this year. Amazing.

    I've also gotten a new race car. I purchased it from Mike Harris in Virginia. It was completely done for STS, which is the class I've been running ever since I started autocrossing back in 1997. I've been running my 2000 Civic Si for the past 5 years with great success. But the 1991 Civic Si started winning Nationals in 2002, 2003, and 2004 everyone had to buy one in order to win. When one would show up to an event I would get whooped pretty bad.

    And actually last year I was asked to co-drive a car built by my 1st instructor when I got into autocrossing. Jim Harnish built (http://www.superiorracing.com/Html/projectcars.php?carID=jim) a 1995 Civic CX             for FSP and asked if I would be his tire warmer. How could I refuse? So I flew out to Topeka, KS in September and got to see what Nationals is all about. The lot was huge! You needed a moped or golf cart to get around I learned. I got to drive Jim's Civic about 1-2 miles before running the next day. Day 1 after learning that I coned on every run I was in 32nd place. It was the same cone from what I learned later. I guess I wasn't used to DOT R tires gripping so well. I'm used to street tires sliding a bit when you turn the steering wheel. Day 2 it poured just before our runs! So we had to change to a rain setup. And since we Pennsylvania'ers get so much rain it actually helped me. I went from 32nd place to 18 place! And if I didn't cone every run my 1st day I would have gotten the last trophy spot! Super cool! I really want to thank Jim for that great opportunity!

    So I ended the year on a great note. Also taking 2nd in the SlideRule Cup AND Valvoline Cup (for the 3rd year in a row).

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