"Sloane Kathleen" A beautiful name... Part 1 (Sloane)

Riding back to Indianapolis from St. Louis on a hot smelly bus following a disappointing loss is never fun. In case you didn't know a charter bus loses its luster or mystique after you have basically been living on one the last three months.  Three months on a bus is a long time, but when it's during a long college baseball season and you are over 6 feet tall and a catcher, it is basically the worst.  Well let me rephrase, when you win its an amazing time.  When you lose it's the worst. Compared to a van it is a nice way to travel, but still isn't satisfying when its hot and you've been beaten.  Adding more insult to this situation is when that trip home is following a season ending loss. This is somehow even worse than before and don't even get me started on the "bathroom".

The year is 2006 and I have just finished my first full season as a travel college player.  It's my sophomore season at the University of Indianapolis and I am sitting next to my best friend and teammate Cliff. (pictured below) I am sure we were half asleep,  making fun of someone, or playing cards. In 2006 no one had a smart phone, and if they did, they didn't have any data for you to borrow.  These bus trips were only as good as the company you shared, unless you were asleep or happened to be watching a good movie.  Considering it was the end of the season we had already covered all the great movie choices.  We had watched the Natural, Major League, Mr. Baseball, The Final Season, Summer Catch, The greatest game ever played (which if you haven't watched, do yourself a favor and watch it), and many others. Coach Vaught, our college coach, was a video master. He always had something good for us to watch. Today, however, we had no movies because Coach Vaught had to stay in St. Louis to watch the rest of the Conference Tournament, and of course he was pissed at us for losing, so he didn't leave us any movies to watch.  He was staying on hand to watch the same tournament we had just been eliminated from.  Reflecting back maybe this bus trip wasn't so bad after all. At least we didn't have to stay with Coach, who was pissed, and watch the team that just eliminated us play again.

Seth and Cliff following a game

You may be wondering at this point how this story pertains to Sloane and her name. I can assure you we are getting there. 

Naming a child is no small task. It is something that can define your child's life, define their personality, or determine how they are viewed by their peers.  It is something that if you think about it to much it can consume you.  I can still remember the poor man who asked me to help name his son in the waiting room the day Sloane was born and the day his son was born.  Poor guy. I hope he got it figured out before he went back to his wife.  Anyways...

Naming a child was clearly not something I was contemplating in 2006. I didn't even have a serious girlfriend and Sloane's mother was still in High School at this point, but on that bus trip home we watched a TV show I had never heard of before, nor seen.  Remember the video master wasn't currently with us.  One of our teammates pulled out his Season 1 Box set and said he had something for us to watch. We didn't really have any other choice.  Also, remember no smart phones or tablets.  We were stuck with what this kid had.  That show was HBO's hit Entourage.  It was one of the first shows I ever "binge" watched.  The episodes of Entourage are thirty minutes long, and on that trip home we basically finished the whole first season. I was hooked and went the next day to Target and bought my own First and Second Season set. I had nothing better to do school was over, baseball was over, so I plowed through those seasons in about three days.  This show was incredible and I couldn't wait until the next season came out. At this point there were only these two seasons out and the third one was slated to start in June on HBO. 

Somewhere during that "binge" watching I was doing, one of the episodes started and their was an actress who's character was named Sloan.  I can remember to this day thinking that was one of the most unique and coolest names I had ever heard.  I really liked it because I thought it was the characters last name for a long time and then realized sometime later it was her first name.  With my last name being a first name, I have always been intrigued by reverse names such as this.  I know at that time I wasn't thinking oh if I have a daughter I will name her that, but somewhere in my brain I must have stored that away because 8 years later Sloan with an E made her grand entrance.  Sloan with an E is very simple to explain really. 

Sloane's mother and I loved Entourage.  We watched every season ever made, including the series ending movie.  Since she was still in high school the first time I saw this show I had to catch her up once we meet.  We met in January of 2008.  We were married in June of 2011, and as you know Sloane came along in 2014. At some point after we found out that we were pregnant and were having a girl, the conversations turned to names. We had some early ideas for girls names before when we didn't know what we were having for sure.  Her mom liked Kensington and something else.  I liked Lucille and Anne, but I wasn't sold on any of the names we liked. 

I can remember very well, one day, stating I loved the name Sloane. I loved it simply because it was a stand alone name and I felt like it would fit a girl very well. Pairing that name with my last name Paul, Sloane Paul had a nice ring to it.  Her mother agreed and at this point we actually talked about the show, and how we loved that character. We had officially become a cliche, we named our kid after a TV show.  It wasn't on purpose, it wasn't something that was ever discussed, but it's definitely what happened.

We both loved the character Sloan and really liked the name. It was a done deal, Sloane would be her name.  This name was awesome for me because she would never be called her first and last name together like I am most of the time.  (Yeah you just said it in your head didn't you? Seth Paul, happens all the time) What I didn't expect was all the nicknames that would come with her name, but I don't think she will mind them.

Finally, all we had to do was decide how to spell her name and come up with a middle name.  We chose S-L-O-A-N-E. The main reason we added an E was because we felt it was more girly, more of a first name that way, and most importantly wasn't the same as the toilet company!

Sloane Kathleen

Sloane, just like her namesake character Sloan, we hoped was going to be a strong and independent woman and would be someone who was as fierce as her name.  I do believe so far she has lived up to the hype. 

I know this post was supposed to be about her middle name, but as I was preparing for this post today, I felt like explaining both names was worth the story.  I thought since it had roots back to when I was playing college baseball you would find the naming process interesting. Honestly, there aren't too many Sloane's out there.  Thus, this post will now be a 2 part post. and the Kathleen part of the story will come next. 

Hope you enjoyed this story as much as I enjoyed reliving these memories and telling them.

Check back in a day or so for part 2.  Feel free to leave comments below.

Until next time... 

-Daddy-