They loved her while they waited for her … and for a while, they got her. They laughed. They cheered. They cried. For weeks and weeks, these people sat outside Antoinette “Toni” Mitchell’s house and waited to meet a man named Brendan Brazier. They called herself “Toni and the Blue Angels,” in a weblog she started a year ago. They wanted her to know they were rooting for her. She played lacrosse. They called her “The Annie Oakley of the Park”. They said she was doing great in the Paralympics. They watched all of the finals together — with a lot of laughter, and a lot of tears. So when Brazier came over to this group to show a picture of Toni, and to wish her luck, and to tell her she was a great player, there was nothing better than the final seconds of his message tumbling into Toni’s face. The smile on her face at the one part was enormous. But the whole minute they were together, the smile was on her face. They smiled and smiled, and smiled and smiled.

Vacation memes This one captures the verisimilitude with which human lives are adapted to the brevity of Internet time.

Speaking of moving moments, a chill sweeps over me as I check out our library this morning, and see that our resident photographer, Chrissy Hupp, has also been traveling. (Mostly, he’s sleeping.) And so I can’t decide how to direct this entry in light of that. It’s like trying to summarize the phrase: don’t worry.

Poem of the week: Adam Lerner’s “O, America” is found here.

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