Some Sunday Stuff: November 2nd.

Long time no write. But I’m doing okay, staying busy with family. My dad was moved from a subacute wing in a hospital to a nursing home. This is progress- after having pneumonia four times and bronchial infections, needing to begin dialysis three times a week (which is continuing)- he has finally become stable enough to be released to a nursing home. He will now begin extensive occupational therapy and physical therapy. He has a tracheotomy and will have to learn to speak through it. On Tuesday, Zoe and I accompanied my stepmom Kathy as Dad was moved via ambulance to his new digs. Daddy got so excited when he saw Zoe. It was his first time seeing her in six months, and when she sang “Itsy Bitsy Spider”, I had to calm him down because I’m pretty sure he was going to cry. Actually, the Big Softee almost cracked up another couple of times, and being that he hasn’t gotten the hang of the trach, crying equals severe coughing spells. So I had to shut that down. 

He’s got a long road ahead of him, so please keep him on your prayer lists. It was so good to see him out of a hospital, though, and in a pretty nice nursing home, to boot.

Zoe as Batgirl on Halloween

Now to the links- which I decided will be on the theme of Hip Hop. Why? I just feel like it. Plus, while talking to a sweetly helpful and pretty undergrad this week, I was reminded of how I once wrote about Hip Hop and R&B music during my college years. So in honor of my dashed career dreams, let’s go. First up, rapper Nas (can you believe Illmatic came out twenty years ago?) on the PBS program, Finding Your Roots with host Professor Henry Louis Gates:

This episode also features actress Angela Basset and politico Valerie Jarret. I’m a fan of the entire series. In every episode, I can’t help but feel blessed that I’m here, because between illness, accidents, persecution, slavery, or countless other variables, I could have so very easily never been born.

A couple of weeks ago, Missy Elliott made headlines when she showed off her new slim figure. After being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease six years ago, the “Get Ur Freak On” rapper made some major life changes. From Hollywood Life:

(Credit: Hollywood Life)

Missy Elliott, 43, totally shocked her fans when she performed in New York City on Oct. 16 showing off a much thinner frame since she was diagnosed with Graves’ disease back in 2008. Doesn’t she look great?

 

Of course, Missy has always looked great; she has amazing personal style and her confidence and talent shines through no matter what she does. However, her weight loss has left her absolutely glowing!

You can tell that she feels as healthy as she looks; when she was diagnosed with Graves, she revealed to People in 2011: “I couldn’t write because my nervous system was so bad – I couldn’t even use a pen.”

Now that she has lost a reported 70 pounds, according to the Daily Mail, it’s clear that Missy is feeling better than ever following her rigorous treatment of the disease.

Missy showed off her svelte figure on Twitter, retweeting several of her fans’ hysterical reactions to her appearance at the launch of Alexander Wang’s collection for H&M. Even Orange Is The New Black‘s Natasha Lyonne was all about it,posting a pretty hilar picture.

I got a little Batty, too.

Over at On The Media spinoff TLDR, I found this interesting story on actor cum rapper Donald Glover, who performs under the nom de guerre, Childish Gambino. Glover has said that his stage name came from an online Wu Tang Clan name generator, and so, that’s where this podcast picks up. By the way, I’m either Half-cut Skeleton or Smilin’ Bandit. I’m partial to the latter. Oh, this podcast, with clips of Wu music, has some cursing, so please be advised: