Personal Facts

• I only drink filtered black coffee, and it has to be sufficiently dark roast.
• I’ve never worn jeans. I can’t tolerate the denim material.
• I can’t tolerate tight- or snug-fitting clothing generally. In the winter I wear stretchy, baggy sweatpants. In the summer I wear stretchy athletic shorts. If I absolutely have to dress up, I would find slacks that are baggy and have an elastic waistband.
• I’m super picky when it comes to eating meat.
• I smoke tobacco cigarettes, but I can’t stand any menthol flavor.
• I don’t drink alcohol. I just don’t care for it taste-wise, and I prefer to be sober-minded and in control of myself. There were some beers that I used to enjoy in moderation, like Guiness and dark craft brews, but I no longer see the point of being buzzed at all. I never liked hard alcohol either.
• My favorite pop (soda) is Dr. Pepper and Pepsi.
• I don’t like bell peppers or plain uncooked tomatoes. The latter makes me gag.
• I’m kind of a mysophobe. It’s not at a clinical OCD level.
• I can be super fussy about things to the point of decision paralysis. I do tend to eventually resolve the issue, though.
• I’m monotropic, which means I can only focus on one stream of activity or sensory input at a time. This is part of my autism. Regarding sensory input, I find that I can focus on one main activity with a few other non-intense sensory inputs. I can’t have a conversation while driving. It’s also hard to drive while listening to others talking. If there is just me in the car then I can drive with the radio on or listen to a podcast; otherwise, it’s hard to focus on driving with other sensory distractions.
• I find that I’m quite sensory-averse, in that I have a hard preference for low-key, quiet, and non-chaotic environments.
• As per sensory aversion, I’m prone to misophonia with certain sounds. This depends on various other factors, such as my mood.
• I prefer the cooler fall and winter months to the warmer months. I hate the summer heat. I also take medication that makes me prone to overheating.
• My favorite holidays and seasons are Halloween, Thanksgiving (United States), and Christmas. I’m not religious, so I only celebrate the cultural aspects of Christmas. I don’t celebrate Thanksgiving as a colonial heritage; I just love the food lol. Halloween will always have a special place in my heart. I love the “spooky” culture and folklore. I don’t describe myself as a horror geek, but my older brother is, so I’ve been exposed to the horror classics for most of my life and I enjoy them as an integral part of the Halloween culture.
• My favorite pizza toppings are mushrooms, olives, spinach, and garlic. I’ll take any or all. There is an Italian restaurant in Chicago called Pompei, and they have this Sicilian style baked clam pizza that is super good.
• I’m of Italian and German heritage. Both my parents are half Italian and half German. Culturally we’re more Italian, though. I don’t know much about the ancestry of my German relatives. My paternal great-great-grandfather, Cosimo Serio, immigrated from Cefalù, Sicily. Apparently the Serio surname is most common there. Serio means serious in Italian. It also means serious in Spanish, and the French version is serieux.
• I have an affinity for Latin and Greek words and their derivatives. I excelled in two years of Spanish in high school and one semester in college.
• I have a “peripheral goal” to learn the Italian and German languages, or at least a significant amount of them.
• I hope to travel someday. I’d like to see Canada and most of Europe, especially Italy. I’d also like to see Australia and Japan, but they are less of a priority. I think I would need a travel partner, like a significant other.
• I have an extreme fear of insects, especially spiders and centipedes.
• I’m not a water person. I never cared for swimming pools. I would describe myself as “hydrophobic” in the sense that I have a strong sensory aversion to getting wet, not that I’m irrationally afraid of water.
• I’m not as funny as I think I am. That’s okay. It’s valid.
• I tend to be routinized, but I try not to be too rigid. I’m not a fan of major changes. I get cranky when my routine is disrupted unexpectedly. I generally need a lot of time to process routine changes, so I appreciate notices a few to several days in advance.
• I am prone to irritability spells. This involves me being cranky, not wanting to interact with anyone, and not taking kindly to demands on my time.