A reading from Chapter 6 of My Pet Virus, The Silent Treatment, looking at the first year and half after my HIV diagnosis at age 11. How the onset of RDS (Restless Dick Syndrome/puberty) impacted my junior high vibe. My first question for my doctor. The best lyrics I've ever written, in a parody song called Wanna Be Cremated and why my cry block from early childhood started to leak- thankfully!- in my 30s.

"Well if I don't toot it... then who the heck is gonna toot mah tooter?"

I read from My Pet Virus, sharing one of the most glorious moments of my farm league baseball days. I also share a story that didn't make it into the book, the time I got my ass kicked trying to defend the honor of my junior high school girlfriend. I discuss how the passing of a member of Depeche Mode inspired my decision to retire my band, Synthetic Division, how Alex Angelich helped me regain my singing voice, why Gary Hawthorne is a Charlottesville legend and my first link to that city and why moving forward with music- and performing again- is going to happen.

ALSO: Start at 19:13 to hear my instrumental track, "I Was Baptized on the Day of the Night That Michael Came Home". Literally, that's the day I was baptized, October 31st, 1978. The cover of my cover album features a painting of me at age 3, that was done on the same day.

Let's get spooky, it's the season for it.

(Correction: I got my first synth and met Gary my SOPHOMORE year, not junior year- because I wasn't old enough to drive yet.)

Find out why I'm gother than grief. Learn who the fairy podmother (hint: it's Lauren Samay of My Mourning Routine!) of My Pod Virus is. Hear my Letter to Grief. Why I agreed to officiate a burial. Why last week's podcast was such heavy emotional lifting, why I asked my dead uncles for a little extra help from beyond the grave... which is fitting fodder for this episode, which was recorded at my Mom's gravesite.