Stop pretending you're not the Bride of Satan

Her relatives are here. It's one middle-aged couple, their late-20's or early-30's daughter, her husband, and their child. They seem pretty nice, and I can't blame them for the sins of their (distant... or whatever) relative.

They pulled into our driveway shortly after we got home. We said hi briefly and went upstairs. (I mean, we're not going to be rude but I'm not going to start talking about how baseball season [or whatever] is going either.) Also, when we arrived in the house at the same time as Her guests, She looked over at us, SMILED, and said "hi"... what a fake! I heard the middle-aged woman exclaim how big the house is and how nice that is for HER. (Yuck. I doubt She told them that it's Her dead husband's dead first wife's house.) She had prepared food, and Her relatives asked why "the girls" (us) weren't eating. She calls us down to eat (which obviously hasn't happened in... forever), we decline, and we hear Her make an excuse about how we are so American and that we don't like Korean food.

Later, they are eating dessert, and She calls down, "Anny! Clara! Eat cake and een-sah (say hi, pay respect, etc)!" That seriously pissed me off because she was telling us to een-sah as if we were being rude and doing something wrong. Clara replied, "Rosa. We are PACKING. Because you told us to leave the house." She looked flustered because... there really was no way to argue that.

Idiot. I hope Her relatives know that She is a two-faced bitch.

More grievances

Oh yeah. I forgot.

Yesterday, when She saw Clara and me packing, She told Clara, "You guys don't really have to move." Which is... absurd... because (1) Her lawyer sent us a letter demanding to know why we HAVEN'T yet moved (not that that's our reason for moving) and that (2) it just proves that She was trying to bluff her way into getting easy rent from us instead of getting gross tenants. (But we're honestly thrilled to move anyway. Just annoyed that we actually have to transport our stuff.)

Also. She thinks we are a cleaning service. Mostly we are trying to get our precious parents' stuff out of the house so it doesn't rot without the presence of our protection (kind of like Petunia Evans's blood protection for Harry Potter only until he stops calling Privet Drive his home)... we aren't trying to clean up the house for Her. She asked Clara to clean out my dad's office.

F---. You.

On the funny side, She apparently did not realize that my dad saved all my mom's stuff and just stored it in the storage area (that She apparently never visits). HA.

Annoying

Today, my sister and She went through some stuff in the kitchen to clearly determine which stuff is our mother's and which stuff was bought post-Her marriage. (Notice that I didn't say "Her stuff"... because my mother worked and contributed to the business and therefore earned household money while She only spends it without actually working.)

Ridiculous thing #1: She told my sister, "Don't take the [Cutco] knives. Your dad bought those for me." I used to work (like everyone else) at Vector (for like a month... just enough time to get my dad and some other relatives to feel sorry for me and make a purchase). If anything, my dad bought those for ME... to make me feel like I was good at my first "real" job (gag), the way parents buy Girl Scout cookies to help their daughters win more badges. I can't believe that She would argue that he bought them for Her. Granted, I'm not going to argue for a few knives (which was actually very excellent quality), but Clara didn't even bring up the topic; SHE did because She wants to get anything worth anything in value for Herself. Anyway, Clara pointed it out that my dad bought them because of me, but She replied that our dad didn't tell us (daughters) everything and that there was a lot we didn't know. GAG! Yeah, right.

Ridiculous thing #2: She told my sister that She wanted the treadmill. Uh... the treadmill that my dad bought because I went on a crazy exercise binge in 2002? The treadmill that only I in the household ever used? Neither She nor my dad ever... EVER used the treadmill. Again, Clara did not bring up the treadmill... She brought it up first to ensure that we 'understood' that or something. (Why would we ask about it? Who our age has room for a treadmill in their apartment?) She probably only wants it so She can sell it because She's greedy.

Ridiculous thing #3: She told my sister that once the insurance stuff was done, She wanted the store computers back in the house. My sister tried to explain, "They're not JUST yours. They're all of ours. They're 1/3 for each of us. We'll discuss it when it's done." Then She kept arguing (without listening) that She wanted them back. This makes ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE because Her own reasoning for NOT CONTRIBUTING to the insurance process is that She does not know how to use the computers, but She just wants anything of value. (Repeat... IF THE SEWING MACHINES GO MISSING, SHE PROBABLY TOOK THEM.)

She is so ridiculous. I'm going to vomit now.

She is still an idiot

Today, Clara was talking to HER about our moving out. At some point, SHE said, "Oh, well you know, you guys don't really have to move out."

Idiot. She probably realizes now that we're not bluffing and that we're actually moving out, and she might have to fend for herself.

Also, Clara asked her about seven times (literally) about whether SHE wants Clara to hook up the karaoke machine upstairs, and she said, "What?" like seven times.

Idiot.

Liar liar, pants on fire

Clara went to R.O.S.A. this morning because she wanted to ask her something about the last tax return for the building. Then, Clara asked her why she was at home and not at her supposed church meeting. Flustered, R.O.S.A. responded that she canceled the meeting because she and her church people "got everything done last night." Then apparently she kept elaborating and also made it seem like the meeting was just canceled.

Changing of details? Flustering? I SMELL A LIAR!

(Sheesh, if you're going to lie, at least leave the house for two hours in the morning to pretend like you had something to do. She can't even keep her lies straight.)

It bugs me because she doesn't even have the gall to admit that she's scared of committing to a meeting. Not even a DECISION... a MEETING.

Furthermore, she told Clara that she is having some relatives over our house this weekend whom she hasn't seen in 30 years. They don't know about Dad or the fire, so she wants to tell them in person.

PROBLEMS WITH THIS SCENARIO:

1. If you haven't seen them in 30 years, why are they visiting now?

2. If they are your relatives, how could they not know about YOUR HUSBAND'S DEATH FROM A YEAR AGO? Wouldn't other relatives have told them?

The most logical thing that comes to mind is that these relatives maybe want to see what R.O.S.A. has inherited although since they supposedly don't know about Dad's death... it just seems really fishy, and none of these details add up.

Also, R.O.S.A. agreed to us that we could take whatever is "ours" and our mother's, aka our furniture in our room (duh, our parents bought it for us) and Mom's stuff (notably dishware). In the will, my dad technically gave her all the furnishings but R.O.S.A. has told us repeatedly in the past that we could have everything since it is all our parents' and she doesn't want it. (Although I think things have changed since she wants to supposedly rent the house out.) So I think she will probably keep most of the furniture (although she agreed we'd give some of our furniture to our cousins on our dad's side), but we are definitely taking our mom's stuff (most of which doesn't get used now anyway since it's fancy dishware and everything). And obviously, anything in our rooms is our stuff anyway, and we've been working adults for awhile now and buying most of our things anyway.

Oh yes, and our lawyers are annoyed that she is uncooperative. Our Korean lawyer said that as of yesterday he had not hear from HER lawyer. Annoying.

More to come.

Idiot is an idiot

My sister and I (and our lawyers) are trying to schedule a meeting with Idiot and her lawyer. In the past, Idiot has always said to us to just let her know whenever there is a meeting about anything and that she'd be there. (Considering that she does no work and that she disappears from time to time from the house in what I suspect are attempts to pretend that she IS doing something useful with her life, I see no reason why she should be unable to make any meeting.)

After speaking with our lawyers, my sister and I suggested a meeting on Friday. When I mentioned it to Idiot last night, she agreed and then came back to me five minutes later claiming that she had to be at church. (Be at church at 8:30 am on a Friday morning...? Don't people at church work too?) This is pretty fishy because she is always at home at that time. I don't doubt that she spends a lot of time at church but certainly not at 8:30 am. I suspect that she probably didn't want to agree to a meeting... which makes no sense to me because it's in all of our best interests to finish up everything as quickly as possible. (Plus, it just racks up more and more legal fees if we prolong this.) But in the end, she told me that she'd have a sure answer for me tomorrow (aka today).

Tonight, I ask her about whether she'd be able to make the meeting. (Of course I had to approach her. She never approaches us for anything which is ridiculous. Would we just live in this limbo if we never approached her, ever?) She said that she had spoken with HER lawyer and that her lawyer was "going to talk" with our (Korean) lawyer and that I should then talk to my lawyer. (This conversation was all very calm except there was bafflement on my part, as usual when speaking with Idiot.) I asked her why she couldn't just tell me right now (when I was in front of her) whether or not she could make the meeting (and of course bring her lawyer) instead of going back and forth with our lawyers. As usual, she evaded my question and just said that "eventually" we'd have a meeting. I said yes, but if we were eventually going to have a meeting, why couldn't we have one right away because even if our lawyers just speak, the three of us would eventually have to talk together anyway. She again did not answer my question and just stated that our lawyers would talk.

I asked her straight out whether she agreed that it was in everybody's best interest to be done with everything as soon as possible. She agreed and said, "That is my hope." But her actions speak otherwise.

I suspect that she is afraid that if we settle this as soon as possible (before everything with the insurance companies is finished), she is afraid that SHE will have to take on the responsibilities instead of leaning on my sister to do everything (and I mean EVERYTHING). Clara has asked her on several occasions to do some inane tasks (because she wants to just feel as though Idiot is participating SOMEHOW even in the tiniest degree) but she has not done them. Idiot uses the excuse of not knowing how to use the computer system (which only strengthens our side that she has almost no participation with the business itself if she does not know how to use the computer system while minimally educated migrant workers are proficient). She also allowed my sister to thank her for highlighting certain customer names from a thick pile of tickets (of the remaining inventory) without telling my sister that she did not actually look at it or do anything. When my sister confronted her about it later that night, Idiot said that she had had no time to look at it and that her eyes (again, the EYES... she drives EVERYWHERE) were bothering her. My sister said that she had no problem with that (since it is true that my sister took it back one day later) but that she does not understand why Idiot allowed my sister to thank her repeatedly for the one task that my sister asked her to complete.

Obnoxious.

If Idiot prolongs this whole legal process and racks up extra legal fees on OUR side, she better compensate. (Yeah, right.)

3/18/08 - More insurance

Clara met with Business Adjuster and New CNA Insurance Guy. (They replaced the old one because he didn't have as much experience with a cleaners.) Clara got one of the checks from State Farm and deposited it.

Last night, Clara gave a list of the inventory that we still have in stock to Rosa and asked her to highlight items six months from the day of the fire. She'd previously told Clara that she'd help out in ways that don't involve the computer (since she doesn't know how to operate the computer that undocumented laborers with a rudimentary knowledge of English and an elementary school education know how to use), so Clara asked her to highlight those items. This morning when Clara asked for the list back, Rosa gave it back to her but hadn't marked up the packet at all.

:-P

Clara would've said something but had to go.

3/13/08 - Inventory

9:30 - Meeting with Inventory Guy from our adjusters. (Hope that's legit... having them send over an inventory guy.) Omar was there and very helpful with knowing every nook and cranny of the store and all the supplies. (Inventory Guy was pretty funny.)

Also, one of our parents' best friends was there. I'd called him the night before because I'd figure he want to know.

Also, Rosa had called some guy from National Cleaners Association. No idea why. On the night of the fire when she arrived at home, she'd mentioned that she should call NCA. I seriously have no idea why. Even though she's a member, I highly doubt that this guy is going to help us for nothing. Why would he? He's not getting paid, and people don't do things for free. (Anyway, I saw him and he left. He might've taken a look around inside which is hard because it's dark and I don't think people are supposed to be there anyway.)

We talked to her later that night about compensation for the workers. She mentioned that she didn't have any money. (Maybe she spent that $300K she received in life insurance from my dad's death. The same $300K she was going to use to buy out our shares a week ago!) But she said she would... probably to get us to not bug her (even though we assumed she wouldn't contribute). We were definitely not going to pressure her to do it because we don't want another letter from her quacky lawyer. But we tried to explain that it's the "right" thing to do for the people who worked their tails off to provide us with OUR nice lifestyle.

She also mentioned to us that she wanted the sewing machines from the store (even the ones set aside). She told us not to throw them away because she wanted to keep them. We tried to explain to her that they were property of the BUSINESS and not ours personally to take. She said she wanted them. We told he that we couldn't even take them because the inventory people are not done with their work yet.

But I'm putting it out there in case the sewing machines go missing later that SHE THINKS THAT THE SEWING MACHINES ARE THERE FOR HER TO CLAIM. So in case they go missing later... I want to put it on record that she said on the 13th day of March that she wanted to take the sewing machines EVEN THOUGH THEY BELONG TO THE BUSINESS.

The end.

3/12/08 - Meeting for the BUSINESS

11:30 - Meeting with L.G. of F&L (same adjusting company) and a rep from CNA, our insurance company for the business. (Rosa asks me if we have separate insurance for building and business. I say yes.)

CNA Guy asks us a lot of questions. Omar is able to help us with many of the answers since he's been at the store longer. At one point, the five of us (CNA, Adjuster, Rosa, Clara, me) are standing in a circle as L.G. and CNA read aloud the different categories of insurance we have (policies that cover machinery, clothing, personal possessions, etc.) and after about 20 minutes of going down the list, Rosa asks aloud, "What kind of insurance do we have?" to which L.G. somewhat impatiently replies, "We just went over this."

Also, the fire investigators were there that day. There was a yellow sign posted on the deli that said "EVIDENCE" and instructed people not to touch anything. The fire investigator gave us a copy of the police report from Sunday. It listed me as the landlord, Omar as the manager, Kike as the deli owner, and some guy I didn't know as a witness (who was probably there before I got to the scene). Omar nicely went to the main street to make copies for us.

When he got back, and we looked at it, everything seemed to be okay. CNA (who admitted he didn't have much experience in dry cleaning, something that Adjuster had casually mentioned to us), Adjuster, and we all say goodbye. Adjuster reminds us that the Inventory Guy from her company (uh, is this okay?) is going to come tomorrow to write everything down.

As we leave, we notice that Omar's car is right by Rosa's car on the side of the building. We dismiss it, figuring that if it's anything important, Omar will tell us.

Sure enough, later he calls us to just let us know that Rosa privately freaked out that I was listed as the landlord. She is worried that the check will be made out to MY name (does she not know how things work in life?) and thinks I'm trying to ruin her life or something when in reality she is trying to ruin mine. Omar explained it was only my name because I was there that night. (I mean, that's not even like that official!)

Oh yeah... note... police report noted that Kike did not call 911 and that he tried to take out the fire himself. Because he's an idiot.

I also bought a fire extinguisher that night for the house. Woo.

3/11/08 - Meeting for the BUILDING

8:30 - Meet with J.F. in the morning in front of store. State Farm is scheduled to be there at 9:30. Rosa is there too.

Our dad's brother's wife sends over her brother (which we didn't know was happening) to "help" us since he works at a cleaners. He makes some suggestions like setting up a drop-off trailer in the store parking lot to keep the clientele. (We doubt this will work since the town would probably prohibit this; also, the whole point of having a plant instead of a drop-off is for customers to know that all the cleaning is done on the premises.) Rosa is very excited about this idea (to keep the customers) and offers to do it herself without thinking logically of the issues. (Would the town permit this? How much would it cost to keep this running? Would customers even come?)

He also suggests to salvage as much clothing as possible to clean the smoke smell out. (Even though Omar once worked at a cleaners where the fire was next-door and didn't even touch their actual store, and the smoke smell wouldn't come out.) We don't want to spend money cleaning and re-cleaning smoky clothing if we're just going to wind up paying a dissatisfied customer anyway.

When State Farm comes, J.F. arranges for us to receive a $10K advance in a check to use for our building mortgage. Apparently it's coming soon.

Rosa leaves. (She'd told us yesterday that she was supposed to have a meeting with her eye doctor the previous day because of her supposed bad eye condition which prevents her from working -- though apparently not driving.)

11:00 - National Waste Clean comes to drop off containers so we can take the chemicals and fill them. (They don't pump it out themselves; they only come to pick it up.)

OTHER THINGS:

(1) As per request of State Farm, we go to the office to drop off a copy of the latest mortgage statement. Our rep is going to send it to the State Farm adjuster.

(2) We deposit Saturday's money in the bank.

(3) We go to the post office to forward our store mail to a new address.

3/10/08 - Immediate fire aftermath

Clara and I ("we") notify our insurance companies while on the road (I am driving; Clara is calling). (We have two separate insurance companies; one handles the business and the other handles the actual building.)

At 9:30, we arrive at the store (which is all boarded). Public adjusters everywhere. ROSA ASKS ME IF WE HAVE STORE INSURANCE BECAUSE SHE IS A DUMBASS AND IS SO FAR REMOVED FROM WORKING IN ANY CAPACITY AT THE STORE THAT SHE DOESN'T KNOW SOMETHING AS GENERAL AS THAT. I say yes.

Three sets of our aunts/uncles are there (Nam, Kim, Hallelujah Man and his wife). Lots of customers milling around: some express sympathy and tell us to forget about their clothes; others demand to know when they will be reimbursed because their clothing is so top-quality. We spend a lot of time fighting off public adjusters all morning.

We talk to our rep (M.L.) at the State Farm office on Fifth Ave. Can't remember what we talked about since mostly we were trying to get away from public adjusters. We did however get the name of the lawyer who assisted my dad with buying the property in the late 1990's. (Of course we weren't involved in that or knew anything about the details.) We called her (L.S.) and she suggested a specific public adjuster company (F&L). The rep tells us that a State Farm adjuster will call us before 16:00 and he'd call us to confirm that someone did call.

The Nams leave; the Kims and Hallelujah people take me, Clara, and Rosa out to lunch. At the end of lunch, Rosa cries, and I have to control my laughter because she sucks. On the drive back to the store, she wails to my uncles, "WHY is this happening? How can this happen to the girls? First they lose their mom, then their dad, and now this!" and I WANT TO PUNCH THE STUPIDITY OUT OF HER FOR DARING TO MENTION MY MOTHER OR EVEN MY FATHER WHEN SHE IS TRYING TO PRETEND SHE CARES ABOUT OUR WELL-BEING WHEN SHE IS TRYING TO TAKE OVER MY FATHER'S ESTATE THAT HE BUILT UP WITH MY MOM!

Rosa leaves shortly after my aunts and uncles leave. Omar, Clara, and I stand in front of the store for like two hours just staring. Singh joins us. Clara and I get a phone call from the State Farm adjuster (D.G.) to meet the next day at 9:30. ML calls us to confirm that the adjuster called, and he suggests not having a public adjuster there because public adjusters suck out all our money. We say bye to Omar and Singh, confirm with ML in person about the appointment tomorrow, and talk to the FD in person to make sure we can call them tomorrow to let the State Farm people inside. We leave Pelham around 16:30 (?) and later go to our aunt's store in NJ to talk about stuff. We get a phone call (we'd been getting phone calls all day from public adjusters, news reporters, clients who heard about the fire and somehow got our numbers) from a lady who supposedly used F&L and she just RAVED about them... even though I was aware that she could've just been somebody's mother there. But we call F&L and make an appointment to meet with the guy at 19:30 back at the store.

We meet JF (the F in F&L) and his colleague M). We sign an agreement to use them and agree to meet with them the following morning at 8:30 (since State Farm will be there at 9:30).

Dinner at our aunt's.

3/9/08 - THE FIRE

18:30 - The fire evidently starts in Kike's office

18:45 - Omar calls me to inform me of the fire and will let me know how bad it is and whether Clara and I need to be there

18:50 - Omar tells us to get there immediately; he's on his way too

18:55 - Omar tells us that everything (deli and cleaners) is destroyed

19:20 - Clara and I arrive; lots of fire trucks everywhere; we don't see any fire since it's mostly smoke by now but there's still a lot of it and there are fire people from Pelham, New Rochelle, Mount Vernon (three-alarm fire)

-----

Omar's family, Clara, and I stayed until about 11. Once we got there, Clara left two messages for Rosa on her cell phone (which was probably turned off because she was probably at church) saying that there was a fire at the store and that she should get here right away. We answer some questions that PD and FD people ask us, including some questions about Kike as a tenant. I tell them about the difficulties of getting rent (how he still owes me $1,000 and how next month's rent was due the following day, March 10) and how he showed me a Con Ed bill the week prior for the amount of more than $9,000. (Omar mentioned that Kike owed the guy who did his surveillance cameras at least $30,000.)

When we got there, we didn't see Kike at all. Apparently he'd gone to the hospital right before we arrived. Originally I heard that he was there for smoke inhalation, but later I heard that he was there for shock (or something). Apparently he exited his store and collapsed. (Still not sure about the veracity of what I'd heard, but he was definitely in the hospital and the police did question him.)

Omar, Clara, and I were mostly waiting there for the guy from the boarding company (Cipco) to come board up the storefront (since it was made of glass) and the roof since it was destroyed. (Someone from the PD gave me the Cipco contact information; he drove to Pelham from Long Island.) At this point, the building is still pretty much standing except someone from the FD said that the steel rods were melted (?) and that apparently means that the roof might collapse. The Cipco guy arrived and he had to wait a bit for the FD to give him safety permission to board it all up.

At 22:30, Rosa calls my cell phone since Clara's phone is off. I don't think she understood Clara's messages, so I tell her that there was a fire that started in the deli and that the store is all destroyed. She says in broken English, "What's WRONG with it?" (I have no idea what she means.) Then she hangs up.

After talking to the Cipco guy and the PD, we all leave around 23:00. When Clara and I arrive home about 45 minutes later, Rosa is not home but the lights are on. Ashley's mom calls me at 0:15 because Rosa had just called HER from the store to tell her about the fire. (We must've just missed Rosa at the store.) Rosa arrives at home a bit after 1:00.

Also tonight, Con Ed comes to cut off service to the building (electric and gas).

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CHANGE IN PURPOSE OF THE BLOG

Since I obviously have no more rent to collect from that IDIOT, this is mostly being used now to record all the stuff that I'm too lazy to write out by hand so I have a place to remember what I did in the days and weeks after the fire...

Also, on the evening of 2/28, Rosa handed me a paper copy of the letter from her attorney. I think she did that because Clara and I had made no mention of the letter to her (because we wanted to speak to our lawyers first) even though we'd possessed an electronic copy since two weeks before that. The following evening, Clara asked her about the letter (while I was out), and Rosa claimed that she'd never read the letter.

(NO, I am not joking.)

Random rant: If Rosa did not actually read the letter (which is entirely possible since she is a complete idiot), it is ridiculous that anyone would hire an attorney to write a threatening letter to somebody with YOUR name attached and not read the actual letter. But if Rosa DID read the letter and is just lying about it (which is entirely possible since she is a complete idiot), she is a total coward and has no dignity to own up to the fact that she is trying to take over my dad's estate. Either way... she is a complete idiot.

BIG UPDATE

2/11/08 - Gave $1,000 cash to Rosa for "food" for Dad's memorial (at her insistence)

2/13/08 - Kike said maybe $2K by Saturday (2/16)
2/13/08 - Received Rosa's threatening letter from her lawyer via email from our lawyer

2/16/08 - Didn't bother asking Kike about the rent

2/18/08 - Kike said no money yet and expressed his wish that Felix (co-owner who isn't at the deli day-to-day) take over the entire store since he's making no money

2/20/08 - Kike said $2,000 cash tomorrow

2/21/08 - Kike gave Clara $2,000 in cash (still $2,078.13 left)

2/25/08 - Kike said $2,080 "by end of month"

3/1/08 - $80 from Kike ($2,000 left); he said he'd give us the rest by "early next week"

3/4/08 - Kike said the rest of the money tomorrow

3/5/08 - $1,000 cash from Kike ($1,000 left)

3/7/08 - Kike said he'd give us $1,000 "next week"

3/9/08 - BIG FUCKING FIRE THAT STARTED IN KIKE'S OFFICE WHEN THE CLEANERS WAS CLOSED... HE DIDN'T EVEN CALL 911!