My perfect day in New York would hopefully start out in my perfect apartment in New York.  This might make me sound annoying, but I really do have the perfect apartment. I have a decent-sized studio in the East Village that’s on a street that has a really sweet neighborhood vibe to it.  There are only a couple businesses, like a dry cleaner and a restaurant called Supper on the corner. Ideally, I would wake up and not be hungover.  And I’d make myself some instant coffee and maybe watch a couple of episodes of a show I’m really addicted to.  Currently, it’s Friday Night Lights.

{Photo by nsanch}

People can take or leave the weather in New York, but as long as the sun is shining, I’m pretty happy.  I love walking to Tompkins Square Park on a Sunday and buying local apples at the market.  Sitting in the park and reading while watching the dogs play is one of my favorite nice-weather pastimes. I love that I can walk around in my neighborhood (and walk everywhere in general) and never feel bored.  There’s always a cute dog to pet, or an interesting outfit to gawk at.  Growing up in the suburbs where everything’s pretty samey, this is an aspect of New York that I never take for granted.

{Image via Earth Matters}

I’m also pretty habitual about what I like to eat.  They have these vegan muffins and vegan sandwiches called Power-Fu at the local gourmet deli that I’m addicted to.  I eat one or the other depending on whether I’m feeling sweet or savory.  I also love the salad bar at Earth Matters, an organic grocery store on Ludlow [Street]. Or sometimes it’s sushi at Sunshine Mart, the Japanese grocery store where I go and swoon over the Japanese snacks and the current Japanese issue of Nylon.

{Image of Crystal Stilts via Highrize}

The reason why I would never move out of New York is because my best friends ever live there.  This is really the first time in my life that I’ve had a big group of awesome friends who share the same interests as me.   In high school, I was kind of a loner and I really missed out on having a clique.  I’d read The Babysitters Club or Sweet Valley High and I just really wanted a big group of friends so badly.  I guess now I have my own grown-up version of The Babysitters Club! Whether it’s going shopping with my friend Brian, or grabbing brunch at the aforementioned Supper with Kevin and Andrew, or hanging out at Cake Shop with my bandmates, it’s pretty hard to choose which of these might be my favorite activities.  Ideally at night, one of my favorite NYC bands would play, like the Crystal Stilts, or Cause Co-motion, and all my friends would be there.

Now that my band tours a lot, I get pretty homesick.  In fact, the next time I am away from home, I will probably re-read this and cry softly into my shirt sleeve.  I guess you could say I’m one of those people who would be perfectly content to live in New York forever.

Peggy Wang sings and plays keyboards in The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. She’s also the editor for BuzzFeed.com.

{My Perfect Day is a weekly Tidepooler series that reveals the most wonderful and interesting places in cities and towns around the world, as shared by the people who live there}