HaT Chats and an Intellectual Salon

HaT Chats and an Intellectual Salon

Another fun cocktail chat! Thank you to those who were able to join in on Sunday. The fun group included Marla, Jan, Alice, Jeanne, Kathy, Gloria, Rochelle, Peggy, Lori, and of course Barb and yours truly. (We missed you Jane, Cathy, Denise, Karen, and Virginia) I should have taken a screenshot of all of us. Next time there will be a screengrab. Be forewarned!

THE topic of the century

We talked about a number of things but, as you can imagine, the topics of COVID-19, our continued self-isolation, and the timing of reversing the lockdown were of special interest.

Thank you, Dr. Rochelle for giving us your perspectives and helping us understand a little more about COVID-19 and the fact that there is still so much we don’t know about it. The fact that Rochelle’s daughter, who had been in self-isolation for over 3 weeks, STILL came down with the virus. ??? Yes, there is so much we just don’t know. It’s important to keep focused on the science and not the politics of the matter. And, Rochelle’s daughter is improving, thank goodness.

Rochelle in action (She’s at the head of the table talking to the anesthesiologist)

And the HaT Chat awards go to…

Everyone contributed to the great discussions and, I hope, everyone is glad to have spent the time together. And, while we are indeed ALL special, the HaT Chat awards go to:

  1. Gloria, in Atlanta, wins the award for “first out of the gate” by actually having had her first appointment at a hair salon post-lockdown.
  2. Peggy wins the award for “mobility” by joining us – cocktail in hand – from her car (parked in her driveway).
  3. Alice (AGAIN) won the “back to the future” award for joining our Sunday afternoon cocktail chat from Monday morning – by way of New Zealand.

The next HaT Chat is Sunday, May 24 at 5:00 pm Central US. If you can join us, go here to the Facebook Invite, RSVP and get the link info.

The Modern Intellectual Salon

Several of us on the HaT Chat call on Sunday expressed an interest in exploring another type of virtual gathering, something akin to a ‘social salon’ but with more of a focus on learning; exploring topics we might not otherwise explore. I wrote about my interest in this on a previous blog post and I’m happy others are interested also!

This is NOT a replacement for the HaT Chat cocktail hour. This is in addition to our cocktail hour. The HaT Chat doesn’t have a formal agenda, other than maybe a central question posed. Our intellectual salon will definitely have an agenda and a format.

Sundays seem to be a convenient time for us to get together so, until we decide otherwise, let’s plan on the salon being on the 3rd Sunday of the month, our first salon being on Sunday, May 17 at 5:00 pm Central US.

I’m going to set up a repeating Zoom meeting for May, June, and July. If possible, can those of you interested please commit to attending 3 salons? Over the months we can fine tune the agenda and format and then decide if this is something we’d like to continue.

I’ll send around an outline of ideas and will share them for comments. I’d like this to be as simple and enjoyable as possible yet still have a structure and be beneficial learning experience for everyone.

So – thank you for making the HaT Chat so nice and I’m excited about our salon! We need to have a name for the salon so put your creative thinking cap on and share your ideas. Ready?

GO!



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