In NYC 2 Hours and Already Trend-Smarter

Check keds.com.

Caught bus in to meet press contact for info to help shape a magazine story pitch. Now working on a proposal.

I love New York. Since 10:29 a.m., the moment my Tory heels hit the pavement on Eighth Avenue, here are the trends I've noticed. I fear I'm behind the curve in spotting them.

• Lots of guys--both gay and straight, I think--are wearing immaculately clean, low-cut Keds-style sneakers in colors or white. Saw a Dad from town on bus, sporting spanking white ones and great, pale buttercup-yellow socks. That would make going to work feel like fun.
• The Samsung Galaxy S5 comes in gold! Saw and liked it on billboard near Macy's. James Bond or James Bond's girlfriend kind of cool. Or bling lover's calling card.
• Pret a Manger--where we met at 11--has excellent food. I'm at the one on Seventh Avenue near 30th Street. Haven't been in for a while except coffee--a while back, my friend Candy told me she liked this sandwich chain. I had a Maine lobster roll [served on a round roll, not the authentic hotdog roll used in Maine] and a Pret Pot--blueberry compote, Greek yogurt, granola. And a 230-calorie bag of chips. The Pot was especially delicious. For years I knew that pret-a-porter meant ready-to-wear [a fashion term I learned in my first job]. But now I know pret a manger is ready to eat. Should have known!!!!
• There's a smoothie shop right in Penn Station facing Seventh Avenue--next to those stairs that I and other people race down at breakneck speed to catch the train home to the suburbs.

Must get to work.

Enjoy your day.

P.S. I do feel kind of shallow posting about snow-white sneakers and gold phones on the anniversary of September 11. I hold in my heart sad and fearful memories of that day. Memories of trust lost--believing that first plane pilot was somehow a bumbling amateur who took a wrong turn, not part of an evil scheme. And I hold deep sighs and grateful thoughts, too--of the heroes who so bravely stepped between life and death to protect others, the friends I knew who survived at the Towers [Kim's husband, F.], the prayer I said with two friends on a Montclair doorstep as the news trickled in, the safe halo that settled over my young daughter that schoolday.