I want to start off by saying: I absolutely love my roommate. I would do anything for him. I know he is a loyal friend to me.

And generally I am able to deal with his Autistim/Aspergers Syndrome. He is in his mid-thirties. He can be unemotional, cold, “efficient.” He has hated all of his prior roommates (I’ve known him since before I moved in). Usually they did something small that he didn’t like or understand, and then he fixated on that and hated them because of it.

His schedule never changes. Every day he does the same thing. He wakes up, showers, eats the same food, etc. I know it’s a part of who he is as a person. He uses the same stores, the same brands, etc. He showers at the exact same time every day, and if anything throws a wrench in his schedule, he melts down. Things beyond his control truly upset him.

As I said, I go above and beyond to keep him happy and to keep him “sane”, but sometimes it gets under my skin and I have to walk away.

Tonight we were on the couch. He was reading a men’s magazine while I was watching something on Netflix. I heard him open one of those cologne ads. He sniffed it then turned the page. I made a joke that him ripping the page sounded like me eating my peppers for dinner (a crunchy weird sound). Then I asked “Which cologne was that?” He says “Some cologne”. I pause for a moment assuming he’d go back to it. It was literally one or two pages away. When I asked again he responded - in a very cold and dismissive tone - “I’ll tell you when I’m done with the magazine.” So I just shook my head and walked out of the room.

It would literally take less than half a second to turn the page back and tell me what cologne he has sniffed. I only wanted to know the name of the cologne!

I love him to death, but his quirks and idiosyncrasies sometimes drive me up the wall. I love him, but I wish he appreciated what I have done to keep him from blowing up.

So many more stories, but tonight just made me angry.