...I hate most about my new job might be... Inspecting the cargo holds.

Every morning I don my headlamp and head into a dark cargo hold. Wanna talk about the perfect place for your imagination to run wild? I'm telling you: It's Freaky In There. Fuh-reee-key!!!

Everything creaks. The hatch covers over your head creak, the cargo pulling against their lashings creak, the tween deck pontoons creak. Everything.

It's dark. Obviously. Well, maybe it's not obvious. There are cargo hold lights but, they're on the upper level, so if the tween deck is in place then there is no light in the lower hold. Very Dark.

There are spiders. Webs everywhere.

Most importantly: There are lots of hiding places.

A few days ago during my routine morning inspection I had an incredibly vivid imagination session. It went something like this: I was down in the hold when I happened upon a stowaway. They were very startled to see me there however; they wanted to make sure I wouldn't tell of their existence.....so they tried to capture me.

An imagination on a separate ocassion went like this: Are there people banging on the inside of that container? I think so....ohmygod! We have a container full of smuggled humans!

Before I begin to tell you how I make my trips into the Hold slightly more bearable, I'd like to state for the record that I realize my method to increase the bearable-ness might be considered a safety issue however; since we all know that Cargo Is King and, we also know that the cargo must be inspected daily I will go ahead and venture forth with my admission. I've taken to wearing my iPod on my cargo rounds.

In fact, I have a Cargo Hold playlist.

A little KT Tunstall anyone? Belting out a few lycris like these seems to make everything better:

I felt a little fear upon my back He said "Don't look back, just keep on walking."

The best way to hate something a little bit less? Make a playlist. It works for me everytime.