The mop room

It didn't take long for me to learn about the mop room at the Plex. On my first shift I was taken around the facility and shown a number of rooms that only the operations staff had access to be in. One of the locations was the mop room. Simply labeled - becasue it was where we kept the mops.

The first time I saw the mop room it seemed in order, hooks on the wall where the mops were hung, buckets in a row in front of the hose where obviously water was used to clean and fill the buckets. Some shelves on one wall full of cleaning supplies that I had never seen or heard of before. I stayed outside the room the first time I saw it. I was shown it from a distance. Standing in the hallway outside the mop room I could see everything inside, becasue it was only about 20 square feet. Along the wall where the mops were hung was a basin... ughh the mop basin. The first time I saw it I thought to myself "smart idea. keeping the water and stuff from flooding all over the room." Little did I know...

In all my life I have never been so offencively violated by a smell.

I don't exactly remember the first time I went into the mop room to get supplies, or rinse a mop, or whatever... probably because I have blocked it out of my memory, or maybe I passed out. But there were times when I would go in holding my breath and try to get what I needed and get the heck out of there...

Understand that the facility was used by hundreds if not thousands of people each day. Between the pool, workout areas, arena, halls, and everything; there were tons of messes. And not the messes that you can wipe up with a scottie paper towel. I mean nasty shit... literally.

Now after theses messes were cleaned, the dirt or mess needed to be taken somewhere. That somewhere was the mop room. And theexact place was the drin in the mop room, in that nice little basin where the mops hung.

The smells there were like a million toilets unflushed, rotting garbage and half digested regugitation, Speiw residew and molds that could kill a man by the touch. The smell was so offensive I could sometimes taste death.

It made me gag, it made me throw up in my mouth, it often brought tears to my eyes. Odly enough it would sometimes make me sweat and I could feel it enter into me through my pores. But worst of all... it gave me gas. And I'm not talking about the funny I ripped one gas... I mean gas that could stop a man in his steps and scream in agony. I have lost track of how many times people would yell out. "Holy shit who died?!" After I broke wind.

It was becasue of that cursed mop room and the odor that rose from the entrance to the pit of hell I called the mop room drain.