I don't find living in a small town a bad thing...I quite like it..
The twin cities have no:
conventions, technically savvy individuals, mass transit, basic labor jobs, good weather, massage therapists, valid bill proposals, night life, acceptable Wireless/Cellular areas(I actually had to shut one of them down last year), surgeons, groups that share any of my music/animation/manga/movie/car/code interests.
It does have:
One club, TONS of retail sites(Victoria Secret and Sears being the only
large businesses), a Summer car show, antiques, a useless coal mine, a skating rink(not ice), a daycare center, malls, numerous hair salons, good parking, overpriced apartments everywhere, a useless airport, lots of homeless, tons of crime, a historic train station, few churches, a supreme court, hard to find franchise distribution centers for Olympia, Portland, Seattle and Spokane. Oh, and 15%+ unemployment.
I'm guessing this sort of reflects where you are on a bad day. I go through hell
ALL THE TIME because there is never any improvement. This is the reason I often come off as bitter or depressing. I'm not but moving from a large city like Phoenix and then coming to a small town and being told I "can't do this" every morning really pisses me off. I don't like doing lots of nothing. I would rather do volunteer work than sit on my ass and I can't even do that since there are no programs anymore. I can thrive when an economy goes bad but not when my area stagnates and shuts down. I have no idea how a few exchange students get by here. I'm assuming they nearly go broke at the end of the year then go back home. I hope the yearly flood strikes us harder than it did last year. Maybe that will give me something to do. :/
Don't drive up in a Ford pick-up.
Hah. I can tell you more than you ever want to know about Ford pickups and anything that runs on Diesel...But I won't. My solution is to drive an American car instead of one of the giant gas sucking machines in my yard. >.<'