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Recently I had a revelation that flew in the face of 23 years of complaining and whining.

Virtually my entire life, I have longed to leave the small town of Anniston. Then Jacksonville.

Big dreams, big city---that was the idea. That was the plan.

The revelation I had was that this place wasn't so bad after all, and if I always lived here I'd be pretty okay with that. It's quaint here. Quaint ain't bad.

However, there are still things that annoy me about living in a small town. Like the lack of culturally stimulating things to do. Yes, we have a museum. Of history.

Coming from somebody who has lived here his whole life, you can take my word on this. Once you've seen the museum once, you don't need to see it again. McDonald's-sponsored dinosaur or no.

The thing that annoys me most is how the one movie theater in the entire county (a county which has three Wal-Marts on the same highway) does not play the movies I want to see.

Into the Wild, a film adaptation of the phenomenal 1993 book, has been in theathers (limited release, I admit) for almost a month now. And not even a whisper of an indication from Oxford's movie theater (it used to be AmStar, they changed it to something else. I forgot what exactly) says the movie will be playing here.

Here is the current lineup of movies in Oxford:

30 Days of Night Vampires. Halloween. Makes enough sense.
Comebacks, The Pass.
Elizabeth: The Golden Age Because this is what Alabamians want to see.
Game Plan, The Didn't this come out like two months ago? Just another step in the Rock's career that will inevitably end in the Florida governor's office.
Gone Baby Gone No clue.
Heartbreak Kid, The "Ben Stiler is funny," me ten years ago.
Kingdom, The Saw this, hated it.
Michael Clayton The one film of these I would see. And do intend to do so.
Rendition Pass.
Resident Evil: Extinction Of the 10,000 video game movies in the last ten or so years, this will be the 10,000th I won't see.
Sarah Landon and the Paranormal Hour See below

Seeker: The Dark Is Rising, The No clue what this is but I'm betting it sucks.
Ten Commandments, The I think this is an animated take on the Bible story. What's funny to me is that Christian Slater has something to do with it. Because his name is Christian. Get it? Yeah, you get it.
Things We Lost in the Fire No clue what this is.
Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married? Probably 20 theathers in America are playing this movie, and they are all close to Perry's native Atlanta. Pass.
We Own the Night They will show a Mark Cuban-directed movie but not a Sean Penn-directed movie. I think I've made my point.

I also like how the theater has the number '12' in the marquee but there are somehow 15 movies showing. That's like how the Big 10 has 11 football teams.

Suffice it to say, it can be a bit frustrating to have to drive to Atlanta to see the film I want. Or to wait and pay $22 for it to come out on a plastic disc.

Still, the small-town kid in me loves this area.