Sing Along - Even Breathing

The recent ruling by the Supreme Court has put me in the mind of how vulnerable pregnant women are.  It’s not something I’ll ever fully be able to appreciate, but having been a witness to the process from start to finish, I have observed a few things about breathing and sleep that couldn’t escape the melody in my mind for this song.

Did you know if you are a person who is pregnant, and you sleep the wrong way in bed, you can wake up in the middle of the night gasping for air?

I didn’t know this either until I watched it happen.  It will make you scared enough to go the emergency room the next morning to make sure everything is “ok” (indeed, a doctor will recommend you come in immediately if you have breathing problems).  There were tears in the examination room as I sat quietly listening to the nurse (also pregnant and extraordinarily kind and reassuring) explain to both Lindsey and I that this was a thing.

There is some nerve in the back and can get “pinched” if the weight of your pregnant body lies squarely and relaxed on it when you sleep.  Although I am a person lucky enough not to ever have to give birth, I still can see how the weight of a growing body can put pressure on your respiratory system when lying on your back.

There are unattractive and weird body pillows you can buy (we bought one) that helps pregnant ladies sleep comfortably and not be in danger of random night-time suffocation.  I’m still in shock we were able to sell it later on.  I’ve learned that there is no bed-making technique good enough to overcome the strange, ineffable feeling you get when you see a body pillow on a freshly made bed.

We discuss quality of sleep often in our house.  While Lindsey is a self-proclaimed light-sleeper and had difficulty early on in our relationship sleeping next to me, I learned this was completely understandable as I made a recording to actually hear what kind of sound I was making.  After listening to the recording and observing the visible waves in the sound recording the next morning there was no doubt that I had a snoring issue.  Lindsey went half on a sleeping machine for me as she simply could not sleep through my loud (but rhythmic) snoring.  She would get out of bed when I had started to (loudly) drift asleep.  I was blissfully unaware of the scale and aggressiveness of the noise my body was making while I was unconscious.

When the baby came, breathing became an activity I never knew I would think about so much.  The moment he arrived I expected screaming (if you can scream you can breathe)—but there was no screaming or crying for what seemed like an eternity (it was probably only like 30 seconds).  When he started screaming it was like he had officially been “born.”  I wept in the delivery room and simultaneously told him that he did a great job and how good he looked.  This is sort of an unfair thing for a mom—as her work isn’t done when the baby arrives (look it up).  When the baby slept quietly at night (rarely) I almost couldn’t take the stress of wondering if he was breathing and whether he would keep breathing.  But he did!  And he still is.  But let me go check just in case.

Sing Along - The Woods Boots

This was the first song I wrote after I released Rescue.  It’s always a weird thought about what that next song will sound like especially after it has been many years making a record.

“The Woods Boots” is about Lindsey taking a pregnancy test at the Woods Boots in Colorado City, TX the weekend we were in Robert Lee, Texas for Tyler Wallace’s wedding.  I was given the honor of playing the pre-wedding music out in a canyon on the Wallace ranch where Tyler and Allison got married.  I decided my “look” wouldn’t be complete without a cowboy hat—an accessory I somehow evaded for my 36 years as a Texan.  I figured rightly so that there would be some sort of badass western wear or cowboy hat store somewhere close by.  I looked it up and Woods Boots had some notoriety in the area.

We decided to go eat lunch first at a place called Lucy’s.  It was a typical sort of west Texas cafe/restaurant sort of place.  I had a chicken fried steak which was OK.  I forget what Lindsey had.  She thought the food was great.  This was suspiciously out of character for her as she generally does not like any food we get when we eat out.  I didn’t think much of it because Lucy’s did have a sort of west Texas charm.  The empty streets of Colorado City made the cafe feel like the town center even though this was probably just the rhythm of a normal day in Colorado City.

After a sufficient amount of chicken fried steak, a sort of mediocre side salad, and a disappointing Pepsi, we headed to Woods Boots.

Like most western wear and boot stores, Woods Boots is a large building sitting atop a large parking lot in need of repair after many hot, dry summers.  We walked in and felt like the outsiders we were.  I asked to try on a few cowboy hats I thought I liked, but shockingly, there were very few hats which would fit my (apparently) large head.  I guess I learned two things that day.

I found a hat— not really the material or color I wanted—but it was a hat that fit and I sort of liked that it was a stye I would not have picked for myself.  Apparently the rule is that you should wear straw in summer and wool in winter.  This wedding was in spring but in Texas everything feels like summer.  It was a Stetson and came in a fancy Stetson hat box which I still have.  It blew off my head one time while we were on the Wallace family property which was embarrassing, but I looked like a real folk/roots musician in the few photos that were taken of me so I call it a win.

And my cowboy hat did look good.  It’s a dark green color and looks like a hat someone would wear to a wedding.

I found myself to be somewhat distracted at the reception after the ceremony.  Had I not been so enveloped in pondering what my life would look like once I had a plane on the runway I might have really partied at Tyler’s wedding.  I kept thinking about the thing that was going on with my partner and our little (growing) organization.  So after I played and did my service to Tyler and Alison I stayed the requisite time and left—which is a sad thing to do at Tyler Wallace’s wedding.  I was too distracted by the thought of being a dad to really be able to enjoy the reception.  I did make Lindsey be the designated driver on the weirdly long journey back to the hotel in Colorado City.  I kept saying “I’m going to be a good dad” both for Lindsey’s benefit and my own.

Download or stream “The Woods Boots Woods” from Bandcamp.