Foregoing the typical “man asks woman on a date” scenario, Katie Waters mixed it up when she asked out her now-husband Matthew Graham.

“Our offices were in the old science center actually,” the art professor said. “My office was at one end and his office was at the other, and I remember I could hear him in there typing late. So I left a note in his mailbox.”

“I called her immediately,” said Matthew, the English professor.

“Lonely,” Katie added.

After three years of dating and talking about marriage, Matthew asked a bartender at a New York Times Square bar – the Audrey Rose – what she thought about the two getting married.

“(He) asked all out of the blue,” Katie said. “He was like ‘Do you think we should get married?'”

She said she wasn’t sure what to think of him asking such a personal question to a random stranger.

“I said to (the bartender), ‘I’m sure you have seen a lot in your life,’ and she said she had, and I asked what she thought about us getting married,” Matthew said. “She said, ‘I think you would be a good couple.’”

Katie said that even after many more trips to New York, they could never find that place again.

“It was kind of like the ‘Twilight Zone,’” Matthew said.

The two married in November 1987, Katie said.

“Men never remember (the date),” she said with a laugh.

Both said they were nervous to get married.

“He put the ring on the wrong hand,” Katie said. “Well, I probably gave him the wrong hand – I’m left-handed so I always do things backwards. I gave him the wrong hand, and he put the ring on the wrong hand.”

She said it was hard to sneak off the wedding ring and switch hands without everyone noticing.

The ring incident was only one of two problems at their wedding.

“We had our reception at the old McCurdy Hotel, but when we all left, people were coming to our house,” she said.

Matthew added, “We realized everyone left, and we didn’t have a ride.”

With only four blocks to their house, the couple walked along Riverside.

“It was about midnight,” Katie said. “I had my wedding dress on, and he had his tux on. It was really kind of fun because people were honking their horns.”

The two still live in downtown Evansville.

A typical date night involves Matthew preparing dinner at their home.

“We really like our life here, but we like to get away,” Katie said. “We like to travel.”

During the summer, they go to what they think of as their second homes: England or Ireland.

“I think (London) is such an international cosmopolitan place,” Matthew said.

“We like New York, too, but New York is all vertical,”  Katie said. “It’s all active. That’s not to say London isn’t, but London is very horizontal and spread out along the Thames River. It seems like you can really walk and see things more.”

The two usually work during their time abroad.

“That’s when we do our own work,” Matthew said.

The two often present together – even at Harlaxton College, England.

“My paintings and drawings and his poems often go together well, (though) we have never consciously said, ‘I’m going to do a poem about your drawing,’” Katie said. “The first time we (presented together), we were really quite amazed at how well that worked out.”

Matthew said Katie has a generosity and patience about her that’s admirable.

“She’s patient with me,” Matthew said. “I’m not always the easiest person to live with.”

Katie said Matthew makes her laugh.

“I think he has a really great sense of humor – sometimes too much of it,” she said with a smile.

But she appreciates how he respects her need to be alone.

“Because we’re both in the arts, he understands the creative process,” Katie said. “He understands what I have to do in painting, when I have to go up and hide in my studio. And vice versa. I understand he has to do writing and how that works.”