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.