The Mini Adventures of #PocketJaime – The Jane Austen Evening Featuring The Novel Strumpet

It’s been a little over a week since #PocketJaime somehow stepped into the 21^st c. and there has been some adjusting going on with both of us.  He’s 3 centuries in the future and I’m suddenly having to figure out how to entertain an 18^th c. pocket sized 2D James Alexander Malcolm McKenzie Fraser.  So I decided I should record our adventures/misadventures and share with you all.  Erica also met a #PocketJaime so look for some of their adventures as well.

I decided his first foray into my world should be to something slightly familiar, but since there’s no Scottish Festival going on near me at the moment I decided to go a few decades after his time.  I took him to the annual Jane Austen Evening held here in Pasadena, CA.  As many of you know I have been attending this ball for nearly a decade and while it’s not quite authentic to the period, I felt it would be somewhat comfortable.

In order to give him an idea of what this would be like I took him to one of the dance classes they hold.

I think he found the class quite entertaining and not only practiced with me but even danced a few with my friend Helen:

Needless to say the conversations we’ve had around women wearing pants has been exhausting, but that’s a whole other tale.

The day of the Ball arrived and #PocketJaime and I took the time to discuss the night to come.  He was very gracious about me dancing as many dances as I would like with or without him as a partner since I explained that out of the 20 or so dances I generally only skip four (either because I don’t know them or because they are a waltz and I’m just not good at that).  I think this was mostly due to the fact he just didn’t feel comfortable in his ability.

He also was fascinated by my curlers.  I mean he’s seen women primp their hair, but my curlers were a revelation to him.  He’s used to watching women nearly singe their hair off with irons from a fire (or not need them like Claire).  Thankfully the explanation of electricity went quickly, and I’m thinking that’s probably thanks to Claire.  He spent the whole time I was curling  making comments like “You mean those wee baskets will do the trick?  What do ya do with them after?  And when ye aren’t using them what do ye carry in them?”  And so forth…

After I curled my hair I had to wash my tea service and I decided to polish my silver service while I was at it.  He sat while I went through the tedious process and we chatted more about what he could expect that night.  I find I always have to kill time during the day of the Ball otherwise I go crazy from the waiting.

Finally, it was time I got ready for the Ball – which I did not allow him to watch, thank you very much, after all he is a married man – but I talked him into a couple of photos.

Then we argued about transportation for him, and I know it must be humiliating, but this was the only logical solution:

We made it to the venue, along with a couple of my friends, in time for the tea portion.  After we selected our seats and I set out my tea service we went to get our food.  For such a small guy he has quite an appetite:

Walter Nelson, the usual Master of Ceremonies bid us welcome:

And then introduced the evening’s entertainment by the Impro Theater doing “Jane Austen Unscripted”

We both hoped they would be entertaining…

They were hysterical!

After tea, the tables and chairs were cleared to make the room ready for the dance portion.  While they closed off the room to make the switch, I talked #PocketJaime into posing for some more “formal” pictures.

Of course all that tea does cause some necessities to be visited:

Once they reopened the ballroom we all headed in and #PocketJaime decided to check out the schedule of dances so he could decide which ones to stand up for and which ones to sit out:

We could see the dancers assembling so my friends and I took our places.

#PocketJaime agreed to take the first dance with us since it was categorized as “Easy”:

He wasn’t so sure about the next one since it was “Intermediate”:

But my friend Helen talked him into standing up to take a waltz with her:

Then, there came a break between sets so we sat to rest:

Thankfully we all took turns sitting out the dances or dancing with #PocketJaime so he was never bored, but I think he got a kick out of just watching the whole thing.  I think he found the most amusement in the fact that in our modern time women could dance with women at assemblies such as this.  There were even a few dressed up as men, which took some explaining, as did the Red Coated officers.  I had to explain that they were not going to arrest him because it was just a costume and no one would know what he’d done at Culloden or any other battle.

To take his mind off of that I decided to get a closer look at the band, whom #PocketJaime liked very much:

And we went to the balcony to watch some of the dancing, and so he could scope out how many Red Coats were in the crowd.  But since he saw some French uniforms he felt more at ease:

Then there was more dancing, and during another break we wanted some refreshment:

Soon, as all good things do, the night came to an end.  Needless to say I was asked many questions about my “date” as we walked and danced around the assembly.  #PocketJaime was equally envied since he had such a lovely entourage with him:

It was as wonderful a night as ever, but we were both exhausted by the time we made it home:

Thank you to the Society for Manners and Merriment for another successful Jane Austen Evening!

And stay tuned!!!!  This is just the first of many adventures #PocketJaime and I have planned….