Bedside Reading

This is where Seth sheds a little tear. I'm sorry, Seth!!

These lights have been a controversy. I've wanted pendant reading
lights hanging over my bed for reading for years--ever since I saw
Candance Olsen do this on her show "Divine Design." How great would
it be to have your reading light in bed suspended over your shoulder,
with its own switch on the wall? It would be GREAT. But who knew
that pendant lights are largely the domain of kitchen lighting, made
almost exclusively of glass and metal. Finding a soft shade pendant
light is next to impossible. Like Seth said, "where do they hide
those on the internet?" The answer is that they are not to be found,
so we should open a company.

Until then, however, Pottery Barn had them this season. I ordered one
and fell in love, but they were not perfect. First, they're a bit
large. Second, that largeness interferes somewhat with the stunning
gang of windows Seth designed over our bed. Third, they're a bit
contemporary (and the ceiling fan in the same room is old-world).
Still, after hours of looking on websites late into many evenings,
replacements that were smaller and more "period" could not be found.
What's more, they went on a GREAT sale on the Pottery Barn
website--basically a third off. For those who don't know it, Pottery
Barn has one of the most generous "price adjustment" policies in the
industry. They'll give you the sale price on anything you've
purchased within 60 days. Unbelievable. The most you get anywhere
else is 14 days. It goes without saying, then, that my committment to
these lights ratcheted up somewhat. I had the electrician put them
in.

And here's the thing. I think they totally WORK. I think the windows
are enhanced by them, and they are enhanced by the windows. The fact
that they are an "eclectic" mix with the old world fan is sorta' cool,
in my opinion. But here's what I love most. In the night, when these
lights are on, the intersection of the two beams of light they emit
occurs DEAD in the middle of that gang of windows in this beautiful,
graphically exact light pattern. It's brilliant.