In our peregrinations around New York, Delaney and I took note of some interesting trends.  I list them here for your edification, in case you want to know what the cool kids are doing, eating, and wearing.

–Dogs in shoes.  Dogs are everywhere in New York, but the cutest canines are all wearing sneakers.  It’s all the pavement, I suppose; their poor little feet need protection, since they don’t have dog-friendly grass to run around in.

–Oatmeal.  Yay!  Oatmeal has finally hit the big-time.  Restaurants are serving the humble oat in ways that that range from predictable (berries, dried fruit, nuts) to surprising (bruleed, baked, and topped with every decadent dairy product you can imagine).

–Rainboots.  Well, boots in general (even with shorts, which I find utterly perplexing), but rainboots are especially dear to my heart.  There’s nothing so pleasant as having toasty dry feet on a cold, wet day.

–Ukraine.  Yes, I realize this is a former Soviet republic, and therefore not even a little bit close to New York, geographically speaking, but we were surprised (in a good way) to find ourselves in a sort of Ukrainian neighborhood, complete with restaurants, a church, and signs in Cyrillic.  That was fun.

–Eating local.  This just kind of cracks me up.  I mean, it’s great.  If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you know I’m a huge fan of the locavore movement.  And it’s wonderful to go into a coffee shop in New York that’s using local milk, but I did sort of wonder how they’re defining local.  I mean, I’ve roamed all over that island in the last couple of weeks, and I never did see any cows grazing.  And yes–the milk that we drink at home?  I’ve seen those cows.  I know where they live.

–Riot gear.  Totally trendy, especially amongst the crowd-control types.

–Protesting.  Just as trendy as the riot gear, and usually found in the same parts of town.

–The Highline.  This is a new-ish park, built on an abandoned elevated rail line, and it’s going on my official list of Favorite Places In The World.  Apparently I’m not the only one who feels that way–it was packed on the (chilly, windy) day Delaney and I were there.

–Barbecue, southern-style.  Oh, puh-leeze.

–Niceness.  Delaney and I concluded that the people who live in New York are pretty much all very nice.  Tourists?  Not so much.

–Books.  It warmed my heart to see people reading–in parks, on the subway, in coffee shops.  And books are being advertised on billboards and trains and the sides of busses.  I’m glad to know we still love to read.

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