As most of you know, and for those of you who are new and don't know me, I'm Allie. I was dubbed early on as the "Scary lady behind the counter", but we don't have a counter anymore, so I'm the "Scary lady behind the nonexistent counter", but in reality I'm much more than that.

I started out as just a girl who loved to ride horses. I've been riding since I was 5, which equals out to over 20 years now, and never once gave martial arts a thought. I really didn't know much about it, know of it, or even watch movies with it in it. I really didn't start to understand martial arts until I was in high school.

I forgot who introduced me to it, but I started watching movies, and fell in love with the genre of "cheesy martial arts flicks", and truly with the discipline it self. I was 16 when I moved to Florida with my dad, which is where I really fell into the martial arts life. We were trying to find me something to do between 2pm and 6pm every day, since my school got out at 2 and my dad didn't get home until 6!

We found a local Tae Kwon Do place who's owner's wife was willing to pick me up after school and take me to the Dojo. And thus began my learning in Martial Arts. I would help out with the kids classes, behind their counter, and help clean up the Dojo from 2 until 4, then I would take classes myself until 6 or 7 at night, every day of the week.

I had a blast. Then I moved back to New York - where my mother couldn't afford to send me to a Dojo, so I practiced when I remembered, and watched tons of films. Then in the 2000, or so, I ended up being close friends with Lee. I had known him since we were tiny, but we really weren't close until 2000-2001. I joined him and his friends in training in his mother's barn, which gave me quite a lot of work to catch up on! It was fun, interesting and we learned a lot from each other.

When I graduated High School, I ended up down in Binghamton, near by to him, and we ended up training again. At Binghamton University we joined a class on Capeoira, and was taught a few other bits from other martial arts. Learning something new, like that, that is so vibrant and fun made our old lessons so much more needed, and interesting.

I moved out west, and subsequently came back, I started helping out at the Studio, where I eventually became known as the Scary Lady Behind the Counter (I still don't remember why this happened) but it was always nice having someone willing to knock on your room's door, and drag you out to practice when you weren't feeling like it.

Now I'm a semi-integral part of the whole business, although he can certainly handle the paperwork himself, he really enjoys teaching the classes, so I handle all the papers. Giving him time to think of things to teach them. While I am not as active as I used to be, I am forever fascinated by the various martial arts. With our pro fighter Pete around, I know I can't be "lazy" any more!

I look forward to what Pete teaches us, and what our students who go elsewhere teach us. But somehow, I know, I'll forever be known as the "Scary Lady Behind the Counter". Which is alright with me.


-Allie