You light up my life

Even though we're renters, John and I decided to splurge on a real chandelier recently. We'd spent more than a year being annoyed that there was no light over the dining table, and after seeing the six-figure works of art in New Orleans antique shops last year, we were inspired by the beauty that can come with an every day thing like lighting.

This isn't as decadent as the ones we saw down south, which looked more like they should be hanging in the grand entrance of the Titanic, but it makes us happy.

There's a whole district down at the south end of Manhattan where there's block after block of lighting stores, adjacent to the same sort of thing for furniture, and then the same thing for kitchen supplies. For people who live in teeny-weeny apartments, New Yorkers obviously spend enough money on furnishings to keep these places in business.