Anz remained at the Hillcrest Cinemas for several years after she and Ved had me fired. After Ved left the company, she became the City Manager in his place. As I mentioned in Thursday's post, this was her goal all along. Since I don't think she started getting any marketing bonuses until Ved's departure, firing me didn't really change her situation. But in the end, it was more beneficial to me because I was making more money at my new job about a year later.
About a month after getting fired, I had something very strange happen to me. I experienced a rare feeling of deja vu when I went to Ralphs in Hillcrest to buy some groceries. As I was parking the car, I got this really strong sensation that Anz was in the store. But this was a Tuesday night, and Anz typically worked at the theatre on Tuesday nights, so I shook my head and dismissed it. After shopping a little bit, I ran into her husband. He said that Anz was checking out at the time! I talked to him a bit and never saw Anz (which I was thankful for). Several months later, I went to Ralphs and quickly glanced Anz as she walked by me, but didn't get that premonition beforehand that time. She didn't notice me, but I did talk to her husband again.
Although she took part in the decision to dismiss me and had almost nothing but criticism for me, there were signs that Anz had some level of admiration for me with regards to certain areas. In February of 1993, I had made predictions for what movies and actors would get nominations for Oscars. I put my predictions in a sealed envelope and had Anz put her signature across the seal. When the nominations were announced, I had correctly chosen all five films nominated for Best Picture and got four out of five in the acting and directing categories. After I was fired, I kept up my friendship with Baz, an employee of the Park Theatre who worked as a sort of personal assistant to Ved in the City Manager's office. I mailed her my predictions for 1994 to arrive the day they were announced. Anz got the mail, saw that I sent something to Baz and gave her the envelope. Then she stood around and eagerly waited for Baz to open it up. Anz KNEW what was inside. I find that rather funny.
What Anz went through after I left reached pretty high levels of drama, although most of it had nothing to do with me. Baz told me that Anz was experiencing problems in her marriage. Her husband, who had been working for a graphic design company, had fallen into a routine of work and stopped pursuing his dream of starting up his own graphic design company. This, among other issues, made him less attractive to her.
After Abed had returned to working at the Hillcrest Cinemas, we were hanging out at the Wikiup Cafe in North Park. While we were there, we ran into one of his co-workers, named Krad. I only got to meet him for about a minute. Over the next few weeks, Abed told me that Krad said that he thought he was in love with Anz. This had to do with Anz' Texas-style hospitality in which she had a tendency to place her hand on someone's arm while she was talking to them. (She'd actually done this to me on numerous occasions, but I never thought much about it because I have several female family members who do the same thing. Maud also did this.) Abed said Krad would talk about his feelings for Anz ALL THE TIME. The other co-workers would get fed up about hearing this and would tell him to do something about it.
In the meantime, Baz told me Anz had separated from her husband and began smoking. A few months later, I went over to Alex's Brown Bag, a sandwich shop near my workplace. There was a couple in front of me in line. The woman turned around, looked at me and mouthed, "Hi." It took me a couple of seconds, but I realized it was Anz. She wasn't wearing her glasses. I mouthed, "Hi" back to her. I never saw the the face of the man she was with, but I knew it wasn't her husband because he was much taller.
I called Baz and told her I saw Anz with a man who was not her husband. Baz told me that her divorce had recently become final, but she wasn't aware of who the new boyfriend might be. A few days later, at the manager's meeting, Anz revealed that she had become romantically involved with one of her employees. It was Krad. Anz said that the relationship didn't officially start until after her divorce was final. (Although everyone seriously doubted that was true. The House Manager of the Park Theatre had seen them coming out of a bar nearby several weeks earlier. They were drunk and behaving very flirtatious toward each other. That manager, who was known as the Landmark Broadcasting Company, actually kept his mouth shut and never said a word about what he'd seen until after her announcement.) I do not know if Anz was inspired to inform everyone about the relationship after I saw her with Krad. She was aware that I was still in contact with Baz and other employees and probably figured out that someone was going to hear it from me that I'd seen her and Krad together.
Some time later, I went to see a movie at the Hillcrest Cinemas. When I was there, I saw an Asian woman with short black hair behind the concession stand. She was getting a soda and wasn't wearing the standard employee apron. I looked a little closer and it appeared to be Anz. I didn't spend too much time looking at her because I didn't want her to see me. Later, I told Abed I had seen Anz like that and asked him if she was actually Asian. He said, "Yeah, I think she's been hiding it all this time." Of course, I can understand why she'd want to do that. One thing I haven't mentioned is that she spoke with a very obvious Texas drawl. There would be an issue that arose when customers asked to speak with the manager. They would be surprised when they were presented with this petite young woman who was supposed to be in charge., but adding the image of an Asian woman speaking like that probably would have been rather disconcerting.
At some point after that, Anz became pregnant and had a little girl. Later, she moved to Los Angeles and worked at the Landmark home office. Her title was listed as the Director of Training. It appears that she got into some kind of est-style program while she was there. The program's website posted a testimonial by her and featured her photo. She had gone back to the strawberry blonde color she had when I knew her. According to her testimonial, there was one part of the job she loved doing and another part that she hated. By using what she learned in the program, she was able to somehow get management to allow her to focus on the part of the job she liked and hire someone else to do that part she couldn't stand. Basically, she was experiencing what I went through when I was working for her. The difference was that she was able to charm her way into a more advantageous position and I couldn't. (Of course, keep in mind this wouldn't have worked on Ved to give up half of his bonus to her.)
Anz and Krad apparently got divorced. He lives in San Diego. Their daughter lives with her and is going to high school. In 2010, I sent her a friend request on Facebook, but she declined it. Since I don't use my real name, she probably wasn't aware it was me.
I can't tell if she still works for Landmark because her Facebook profile lists her profession as Former Director of Training and doesn't include a current employer. She's in a relationship. I found information that indicates that he used to work for Landmark and they were working together in 2003 and got a home together in 2005. (It looks like she has a tendency to hook up with her co-workers. Perhaps I did have a shot with her.) Maybe they're married. I don't know. I do know that she still has the same last name as Krad. I also know that the "new man" now works as a payroll manager for a different company and got that position in July of 2015.
As for her first husband, he's gone through a series of graphic design jobs and now lives in Portland, ME. He also has his own design studio. He appears to be fairly successful.
I also found her date of birth. She just turned 50 this month. It is truly amazing how much you can find out about someone on the Internet.
One of the interesting things is the realization that in November of this year, it will have been 25 years since I moved to San Diego to start my new life with the Hillcrest Cinemas. As you will see in the future, I had many more new lives after that.
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