They met during grad school. He accidentally sat at the bench, thinking it was the smoker’s bench, and she had seen him before in the master’s program. He was cute, she thought, so she invited him to sit at the grad-student bench.

“And then we just became friends and just started dating, in that way that friends sometimes date,” she said.

The way that friends sometimes date turned into marriage for Amy Montz and Anthony Rintala.

Since Amy, an only child, opted to keep her maiden name, they jokingly say Anthony became Mr. Montz. They both refer to their family, which includes a dog named Harley Quinn, as the Montztalas – a combination of their names.

“It meant an awful lot to her father that she was Dr. Montz, and after working so hard to be Dr. Montz, I actually felt unfair making her change that,” Anthony said.

The two came to USI in the fall of 2010 after scoping out the Evansville area and finding a house built in 1928, with room upstairs and downstairs for Harley’s toy collection and their action figure collection.

I fell in love with it,” Anthony said. “I was born in the Midwest, and I’ve spent 30 years in the South, looking for a place that apparently is the Midwest. This place felt like home as soon as I got here.”

The couple loves working on campus together. Anthony said to Amy, “I love that I can check on you whenever I want. I tend to walk by and go, ‘Hi. Bye!’”

Amy made it clear that Anthony also checks in on her Keurig.

“He comes in and steals coffee,” she said.

While Amy and Anthony enjoy working together, they make sure their relationship is not entirely focused on their jobs on campus. Amy said they avoid talking about work by playing the question game, where they ask each other the most random questions possible.

Amy once asked if Anthony would prefer their dog being steam-powered or clockwork-powered.

“We’ve been together so long that it’s like our quirks are each other’s quirks now,” Amy said.

After being together for 14 years, they have a lot of memories to share, including their honeymoon at Disney World and a trip to Loch Ness.

Amy gestured to the photo frames around her office and offered an explanation for the pictures in them.

“When we got married, our photographer took over 900 pictures of us, almost all of them together, and so we do this thing now where we go out somewhere and we take pictures,” she said.

“We actually do, like, crazy poses,” Amy said, holding out a picture of Anthony on Loch Ness. “For that one, I was like, ‘Pretend you own this lake!’”

Even though Amy and Anthony have fun together, they stressed the importance of healthy time apart for couples.

“I think that’s important – not being so wrapped up in another person so that you lose yourself,” Anthony said. “Don’t be absorbed into that person.”

While Amy may occasionally visit her family in New Orleans without Anthony, they spend Valentine’s Day together in a way most couples may consider unconventional – taking part in Anti-Valentine’s Day with their single friends.

“We don’t really do (anything traditional) for Valentine’s Day,” Anthony said. “We tend to rent horror movies.”

“And eat steak,” Amy added. “We feel like Valentine’s Day gets an artificial importance, like people put a lot of pressure on themselves for Valentine’s Day.”

Amy and Anthony still celebrate the days closest to them – their anniversaries, including their wedding anniversary and date-iversary, which is a celebration of their first date together. On these days, the couple will go out for a nice dinner and movie.

Even if Amy doesn’t always water her plants – which Anthony claims she hasn’t done in two years – and Anthony has unconventional work habits, such as listening to podcasts, watching Netflix, and grading papers all at once, they have been married nine years.

Their advice to living together happily seemed simple.

Amy originally said steak was the key to living as a happy couple, but then said, “I would say to find the person you can be you with. I think that’s the best advice. You’ll never change anyone. This idea that, ‘Oh I can fix him, I can fix her,’ is not a thing. What you need to do is find the person who makes you better, makes you all the parts of you.”

Anthony added, “And the person that makes you a better you (into) a better version of yourself.”

“And marry your best friend,” Amy said. “Be with your best friend. Anthony’s my best friend. Even when I’m having problems with him, he’s the person I go to tell that to.”