{"id":9490,"date":"2026-05-04T18:15:52","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T18:15:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/?post_type=article&p=9490"},"modified":"2026-05-04T18:15:52","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T18:15:52","slug":"inside-the-cold-of-january","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/article\/inside-the-cold-of-january\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the cold of January\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Travis Mossotti<\/span><\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

I<\/span>nside the cold of January where my daughter plays soccer in a converted warehouse\u2014the old loading dock permanently shut behind the goal where the goalie waits for the play to start up again, knees bent and ready\u2014and the other team has driven a long way from the outskirts of outer-outer ring suburbs built on old dirt farms where every\u00a0<\/span>constructed<\/span>\u00a0thing down to the Dollar Stores and Amazon distribution centers seems fixed with Elmer\u2019s glue atop tornado prone fields, and their parents watch the game as seriously as hedge fund managers might watch the Bloomberg ticker. In the minds of these parents, the ref is crooked, but I know\u00a0<\/span>he\u2019s<\/span>\u00a0just\u00a0<\/span>the\u00a0<\/span>guy\u00a0<\/span>working<\/span>\u00a0the concession stand on other nights who\u00a0<\/span>probably has<\/span>\u00a0other things on his mind (like the pilot light of his furnace) and good for him, I think.\u00a0<\/span>Although t<\/span>he parents on my daughter\u2019s team are not thinking about the game, they watch<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0hoping their daughters\u00a0<\/span>don\u2019t<\/span>\u00a0get injured in any meaningful way. Like me,\u00a0<\/span>they\u2019re<\/span>\u00a0thinking about brushing up on their French before a trip to Paris this spring and calculating which prep school will offer the highest yield. A little girl<\/span>\u00a0in the crowd<\/span>, maybe seven years old,\u00a0<\/span>fr<\/span>om the other team is not watching her big sister play, but she\u2019s singing the refrain to a song she knows by heart\u2014loud enough to be heard but not loud enough to be disruptive\u2014and her voice is okay and I\u2019m thinking how she might be a young Adele in the making. With the right training and sufficient ambition and lucky breaks\u2014I mean talent can come from anywhere, right? I\u00a0<\/span>don\u2019t<\/span>\u00a0mean to look\u00a0<\/span>down<\/span>\u00a0my nose at them. At the words they say and how poorly they take the loss and how long their trip home must feel with their daughters\u2019 disappointment hued like the inside of a red rose that will never open. How that little girl with the voice will keep practicing the notes she knows might help her escape and what her escape might look like: Vegas, five shows per week? The well-oiled roulette wheels on the casino floors\u00a0<\/span>spinning<\/span>\u00a0in unison as the little ivory balls start<\/span>\u00a0to<\/span>\u00a0danc<\/span>e<\/span>\u00a0back and forth between red and black<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Travis Mossotti   Inside the cold of January where my daughter plays soccer in a converted warehouse\u2014the old loading dock permanently shut behind the goal where the goalie waits for the play to start up again, knees bent and ready\u2014and the other team has driven a long way from the outskirts of outer-outer ring suburbs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":9492,"template":"","categories":[9,49,119],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9490","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aquifer","category-literary-features","category-poetry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nInside the cold of January\u2026 - The Florida Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/article\/inside-the-cold-of-january\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Inside the cold of January\u2026 - 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