Dana Burland

Yayyyy, I graduated! Well, sort of... On Saturday I walked in across the stage of the Van Andel Arena , shook with my right hand, grabbed an empty diploma booklet with my left and turned the tassel across my mortarboard. My family drove in from Detroit & Chicago to celebrate the GRAND day with me. We lounged around in my apartment together the night before, then spent Saturday downtown at the ceremony and lunched at the Electric Cheetah (yum yum!!).

Last weekend I drove 4 hours north for the most important of events.  My siblings and I had been planning a 'Siblings and friends' vacation to our favorite spot in Michigan for a few weeks. We had a newcomer to the area and had a great time showing Louise all the family traditions, favorite shops and silly games we grew up with.   We shopped around, collected Petoskey stones , walked out to the pier, ate at some of our favorite places and visited some beautiful beaches. Martin and Louise both won the long-standing sibling Poohstick game, Regan braved Lake Michigan even though her feet hurt real bad .  Evan won for the biggest purchase at the most quintessential up north store ever- the Indian Store (honorable mentions to Louise for the most complicated purchase there), and Louise won for collecting most Petoskey stones.  I probably won for taking the most pictures, with Louise in a close second. :)

Hi strangers! Sorry it's been quiet around here. Life has been less interesting and more hectic as my last semester wraps up. When I do have down time, I usually spend it freaking out about where my life is going within the next 6 months. When I'm done doing that, I usually go running then buy myself a candy bar to calm down. The following pictures demonstrate what goes on around my place on the odd occasion there's still time left after all of that. A few weeks ago, Louise and I took a hike through the ravines around campus. She snapped this photo and I toyed around with the colors a bit (but not too much, I swear!) since the leaves were getting kinda soggy. I've been trying to soak the fall in as much as possible this year since I have no idea if the place I'll be next fall will have such spectacular colors. Occasionally we buckle down and get our work done, but not without being comfortable! *Someone* has been living in my beloved fleece 'green bean...

This week was midterm week around Allentucky, which means that the duplex currently looks like the aftermath of an atomic bomb explosion.  To be honest, the duplex has been in war zone mode since we returned in September.  Alas, this is a totally different post which can never be posted because if any of my readers were to see the photos that would accompany that post, Louise and I would be placed in quarantine due to contracting diseases from our weeks worth of dirty dishes. Anyway, midterm week. A little birdy told me about a month ago that a bus worth of beautiful men were coming to Grand Rapids for a basketball game.  The Pistons play at the Van Andel Arena downtown every year, but I had never been before.  Since it's my last semester, I've been trying to pay more attention to events going on and trying to be more adamant about schleping my little behind out to them.  So, midterm week or no midterm week; double presentations the next morning or not; noth...

My family is a Saturn family. Almost 10 years ago, my parents bought my sister a glorified skateboard- a Ford Tempo. Somewhere between paying multiple times the actual buying price in repairs and the mechanic referring to the beast as a ticking time bomb, it was replaced by our family’s first Saturn. A white, 1991, power seatbelted, passenger side mirror missing, engine that smelled like breakfast food beauty, properly named Tiffany (from the song “Breakfast with Tiffany”). She had her moments of protest like the handful of times her locks froze over or the summers when she regularly left a rainbow trail of oil slithering down the driveway. But among her aesthetic flaws was undeniable charm. She dangled beads from the rear view mirror proudly, got half the swim team to and from practice efficiently, and (as silly as it sounds) had a slick build that resembled a constant smile. She always ran well and when was in need of repair, was restored quickly to her usual self. It felt that sh...

As I write this my feet are soaking in our salad bowl. (Note to potential dinner guests: this will be sanitized before your next visit to the duplex.) However pruney my toes may be, this feels wonderful after the long, blister producing weekend I endured. Friday night I received a golden ticket invitation to Grandma Woodhouse’s for a homemade lasagna dinner. The lady talks, cooks and decorates like an absolute champ. Good thing Louise and I were in the need to carbo load! Saturday morning we drove to the mall for the Race for the Cure. We’ve probably walked marathons around that building but this time we laced up, donned our Pink Drink shirts and ran a 5k with over 5,000 breast cancer supporters.  This year neighbors lined their streets to cheer us on, sorority girls passed out water and Grandville High School’s marching band serenaded us as we passed. It was too cool. After a couple hours of well deserved couch potato time we headed downtown to check out Art Prize. Over 1,200...

This, for all my non-Bar Mizvah attending friends, is what the Jewish transition into manhood is all about. Ok, it's a bit more than this, and if you would like the actual details, we can talk about the whole ceremony over matzo and Manishevitz wine sometime. As you can see via the photo to the left, I had quite a lovely time in Fort Wayne celebrating my cousins' duel sports and rock themed Bar Mitzvahs.  My brother and I spent 90 percent of the night breaking it down amist a sea of 13 year olds.  Some highlights include Evan challenging a man who was clearly over 85 to a dance off, watching the Chips beat the Spartans in our hotel room before the party, and getting to spend time with immediate and extended family.  The party was by far the best I've ever been to.  Congratulations boys, and thanks for a fabulous night!  (And yes, the following song was played, apparently three times.)

Evan came to visit me for Labor Day weekend!  We had great weather and spent both Saturday and Sunday at the beach in Grand Haven.  Maybe had a little too much fun by the looks of E's back, hehe.  Beside our time in the sun, we wandered around downtown Grand Rapids, spent some time with friends, got hooked on some new tv shows, went running and biking and attempted to eat well on my meager budget.  Considering everyone was leaving Central and Evan was going to starve , I think he had a pretty good time in Grand Rapids too. :)

A sprinkle of delayed flights, one best friend, a Golden Globe and Emmy Award winning TV show and 15 hours of travel by my silver bullet of a Saturn later, I'm back in Michigan. Here are some highlights from our trip: Coaxing my male roommates to sing Celine Dion with us at a karaoke bar. The sighting of the largest non-tarantula spider known to man on my car. Driving through hours of Pocono/Appalachian scenery that resembled the photo on the bottle of Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing. Naming ourselves assistant to the assistant to the regional manager in Scranton, PA. NIAGARA FALLS! The beauty of the Canadian border patrol man, le rawr. The waiter at the crappy Applebee's knock off restaurant in Canada with bad teeth but a cute accent. Pumping gas into my car by the liter and believing I was getting a good deal when I actually was notttt. Seeing the same non-tarantula spider from Pennsylvania spinning a new web on my car in Michigan.

A view from my back porch of the old steel factory lit up every night in red. Photo credit: my roommate Mark About a week or two ago I was mindlessly driving home from work when I realized I was taking it for granted. I use to find the sudden, drastic elevation changes in my little town huge. I would wonder how ever my little car was going to make it up these climbs every day. About a week or two ago I realized that I barely notice them any more. It's been 11 weeks out here and I've really gotten use to the area. The fact that I can mindlessly drive to and from work is a miracle to me when I think about the amount of gas and time I wasted in my early navigation of the area. I use to fluster with the key to my apartment every day and now I could get in blindfolded. I know where the feta cheese is in the grocery store, which running route to take to get the least creepy townie stares and (thanks to my roommate Mark) the best sushi place in town.

Evan is off to college! Wow! Good luck with your first year of school, Man of E. You'll have a fabulous time. :)

That would be me, on the left wearing my Tiger's hat behind the other lady wearing a hat. See those rapids? See my face in the picture? Maybe not because I'm tucked away a bit but it's one of half excitement half near shorts pooping. This photo was taken during the first 30 minutes of our 4 hour excursion down the Lehigh River . I did not know at the time of this photo that these rapids were merely bubbles compared to some tougher spots on the 9 mile course. First, meet my rafting partners, Mr. Goatee in the back (I forgot his real name), Diane in front of him and Katie in front of me. D&K were really spunky older women who kindly welcomed me to hang with them for the day. There were about 20 other rafts on our trip with us (back to this later), most had between 6-8 people instead of 4. This wasn't an issue until the morning after the trip, when my arms felt like they were still paddling while at my cubical.

I have failed as a blogger to provide my loyal readers with up to date information on my most exciting life. Shame on me. However, it's still been less than a month since the big wedding, thus I'm not too late, right? :) Here is the story albeit quite late Of R&M and their very special date All friends and family packed up their cars And drove a few hours (not nearly as far as Mars) We stopped for the rehearsal dinner at a cute pizza place Where animal heads were mounted in every large and small space

One of my coworkers had an extra ticket for the big Musikfest event in my town, that just happened to be for a Tuesday night showing of my all time favorite band. It was well beyond an awesome concert. Stephan Jenkins could have worn a velvet Mad Hatter esque hat for half of the show and I still would have loved it. Oh wait, he did. They played Semi-Charmed Life , How's It Gonna Be , Jumper , Faster , Wounded and new junk from their up coming cd (the first in 6 years). SJ also broke into a little Nelly's Ride With Me in the middle of one of the old hits, and payed tribute to MJ with the Jackson 5's I Want You Back . Also 3eb made it pretty clear they're done playing old hits. Sad, but I'm glad I finally made it to see them before they retired all my favorites. The whole night was a lot of fun! Oh and they played this too... probably just for Louise, her fav 3eb song live. Eeeeeeee.

I'm back from the Big Apple! I've showered the city film off my skin and cleaned out newly formed blisters; all evidence of a successful trip. I had a great time catching up with Caroline and sight seeing in the city. Here's a recap: I came into Friday night by a quick bus ride right from my town in PA. Caroline met me when I got off the bus and after dropping my stuff off, we wandered over to Little Italy for dinner. We finally settled on a cute place with a table outside after enough creepy old Italian waiters attempted to lure us in by thrusting menus under our noses and calling us beautiful. If only I knew that my ravishing beauty would lead to more trouble later on... Afterward we walked over to Washington Square Park in Manhattan and I snapped this photo of the Washington Square Arch. I witnessed my first encounter with crazy New Yorkers in the fountain behind the arch in the park. Long story short, some high school girls were taking pictures in the mid...

Happy birthday dear roommate of mine! As a pre-present, please enjoy this throwback picture of us as slightly sweaty freshmen who were oblivious as to what the next 4 years would hold.

I would hate the hundreds of people who get my posts via email to miss out on the new header I spent far too long creating. Yeah, I realize that's a whole lot of me, but look! I'm doing funny things and wearing funny hats! Also it's my blog so I can cry post trillions of pictures if I want to. I have not forgotten to update on R's wedding from two weeks ago. I need a little more free time ( more than what it took to cut yourself out of all those photos, Dana? Why yes. More than that. ) to decide on posting format for that bad boy. In other news, I saw my first Michigan license plate (besides my own, duh) this past weekend. I miss home.

Guess what's coming in August? Thelma & Louise's great semi-east coast road trip 09. More details to come.

Considering my day trip, it was quite ironic that this was popped into my head while in the shower this morning. Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air Theme Song No, I didn't go to Bel Air, but I did hang out with the fresh prince of Philadelphia! I was able to scoot out of my internship early today to catch Dave within the last few days of his summer in Philly. I could have had to crabwalk the 25 miles in the middle of the night for 15 minutes of Dave time and I still would have done it. I've been itching to get to Philadelphia and dying to see someone who knows who Louie the Laker is. I'm so glad that we both found time to meet up while in the same state!

Not feeling so hot today. Couldn't have been better timing for these to arrive: My best friend is clearly superior than your best friend. More to come later.

First off—if you weren’t home for a week (due a total of 43 colorful hours of travel time for 31 hours of absolute wedding/up north awesomeness) and came back to see the place you live in look like this, would you be concerned? I’m back to my newly decrepit apartment after what feels like just blowing through half the state of Michigan. My life has been such meshugas since last week — I haven’t been able to update on all the happenings! The weekend clearly deserves it’s own post, but here’s a brief recap on last week’s sitchus leading up to my trip to Petoskey: My new job I work part-time out here in an attempt to keep food in my fridge and to pay for all of my East Coast desires like driving around looking for Amish people and babysitting my inner 8-year-old at a day of arts and crafts . I’ve been coaching, but the season is almost up and gosh if I’m ever going to go to the Jersey shore to partake in a day of drunken beachery and nighttime drug induced raving, I better find a...

I was invited to have lunch with the chairman of the company I'm interning for tomorrow. What do I wear and how should I do my hair?

As promised, here is a video of my city! Sorry about the noise/wind, I'm not really saying anything all that important; oh but I do mess up the name of the school I'm living near by. It's Lehigh University not Lehigh Valley. I guess I'm just missing GVSU, ha. Also excuse the awkward face I make at the beginning of the video. Yeah, no good excuse on that one.

Once I landed here and realized the Lehigh Valley had it's own signature hot dog place, I realized this side of the world might have some potential. See, a good hot dog place is like a staple in my life. A necessity. Not that I crave the mystery cased meat all that often, but I grew up hugged in the tasty arms of Coney Islands ; one at almost every major mile road. I might not have made my college decision based on hot dog restaurants, but I might as well have. When introduced to Yesterdog in the greater Grand Rapids area, I fell in love with the steamed dogs, weighed down with ladles of gooey chili and topped with a perfect layer of thinly shreaded cheddar cheese. An outing to Yesterdog was always something to look forward to all week.

It only took me three weeks to get in the newspaper out here. Impressive, no? A reporter and photographer from the local paper came to do a story on our team's first win in five years . Thus, the lovely left half of my body graced the seventh page of the first section this morning. Despite being hounded for autographs due to this recent fame, little else is new here. My very small fortune from coaching is undergoing much scrutiny to determine how it will be stretched to cover all my 'must do' activities out here. More to come on that front later, I hope. Today was video day at work, a.k.a my favorite day in the work week. I got a sneak peak at some footage we shot last week and helped out in the organizing, producing and acting in another video. I did a couple one handed cartwheels and oh! had my Michigan accent recognized for the first time when I said 'rock', haha. Anyway, there are definitely a few videos I'm looking forward to see on the site . I...

My team won! The first time they have won a duel meet in more than seven years was tonight. The kids were ECSTATIC and rightfully so! There was mass amounts of screaming and some tears of joy among the older girls who had been waiting since they were 8 & undies to see this happen again. Everyone ended up jumping in the pool at the end of the meet. We (me and the other coach) let the kids push us in, which is always 20 times more exciting for the kids then it really should be. Afterward, the team always goes out for ice cream but it was a mass celebration this time around. I drove one of the older girls there so someone could navigate this foreign area for me. But really though, it was kind of a marking moment for me out here. A lot of the younger kids have warmed up to me already at their own pace but it's much more difficult to gain some common ground with high schoolers. It's pretty great to feel accepted among a group of people who have no idea who you are, l...

Today is the first day this week I've been home before the sunset, yay! I've been very busy this week with coaching, interning and swim meets. It's been a lot of fun but extremely tiring. Thankfully a beautiful FedEx package filled with melty, minty brownie goodness shipped from the cooking goddess of Michigan to my work desk, making me an intensely happy girl. My team has swam three meets and not yet won, but the kids are showing some technical improvement which makes me happy. On Monday I stupidly challenged one of the better 9-year-old boys to a 25 fly no-breather and had to buy him a candy bar for it. Today I raced a 7-year-old who had been talking trash since he met me about how fast he is. He "beat" me and was so incredibly excited about it he ran around the pool to tell everyone. Tomorrow is our third meet of the week and afterward I'm anticipating a collapse into an intense coma that involves waking up in a queen sized pool of my own drool. ...

Today I had my first major adventure since arriving in Pennsylvania! I'll Quentin Tarantino it and tell it in reverse just for maximum effect. Even though it was pouring when I left Easton, PA , I could not resist driving over the Delaware River into New Jersey. I really wanted to add another state to my places-I've-been list, even if it meant suffering through my nerves over a grated bridge and seeing NJ through my windshield wipers. I had just walked back to my car in the pouring rain. However drenched, I managed to snap this photo to display just how thrilling my afternoon adventure had been. Leaving the factory I walked through groups of families; screaming children and pissy parents who were at wits end with the amount of fun and stimulation captured inside one building. The creative stations were plentiful—all busy, dirty and totally exciting to me. I had to resist my temptation to knock little Timmy and Jimmy off the kiddie sized stools to play with the model...

Last week was a week of first for me at my internship. I pitched, researched and wrote my first story , and the video I was in went live. Although I'm a terrible actress, I love video shoot day. I still haven't seen it; I'm saving it for the possibility of a Dana movie marathon so I can suffer through all of my pitiful acting at once over a pint of ice cream with family and friends. The internship, company and people are all still fabulous. I used the company gym for the first time last week and had a nice run while watching a geriatrics aerobic class lift two pound weights and practice arm reaches. The cafeteria is also awesome; everything is healthy, organic and reasonably priced. Even on a desperate hunt for chocolate the worst damage I could do was a pack of mini organic dark chocolate peppermint cups. This is good considering the mass bodily destruction I have planned for Hershey Park in the near future. Coaching is also going well. Thankfully both my bos...

Greetings from the Keystone State! I'm currently without internet at my apartment—which is on par in lack of communication as with falling 50 feet down a dark storm drain in a busy city where no one can hear my cries. I've had a great week out here, despite rain almost every single day. The view from just about anywhere is incredible anyway. I live in the heart of a really cute city built right into the Appalachian Mountains . Basically I haven't been able to pick my jaw up off the ground since I've been here. When it rains, a thick layer of fog and steam come up from the valleys and it looks like this mountainous bowl is full of skim milk—which is just as incredible as sunny skies. Luckily the clouds have stayed at bay long enough this weekend for me to do some exploring by foot and bike. Yesterday I went running and accidentally got caught in a Portuguese Heritage Festival parade. Today I only thought I was going to die six times on my bike ride because ...

Life is a flurry of activity around the house as we prepare for Man of E's grad festivities this weekend. I've been helping out as much as possible by printing a kajillion invites and thank you notes, serving as a vital member of the Plastic Dinnerware Board and running errands that occasionally end in the purchase of a gift to myself for all of my troubles (hello new Red Wings t-shirt). On the subject of graduation, you MUST watch this speech given by Ellen DeGeneres at Tulane University. Ellie, whose father is now famous for reason I won't mention here, sent me this awhile ago and no matter how many times I watch, it never gets old.

This post is specifically for my sister , who voiced disappointment that there was nothing new here to distract her from her freelance project, and for Toy , who challenged my overuse of explanation marks in previous posts. Tori, I'd love to tone down the excitement, but how can I when the highlight of my day is poking laundry lint with a pitchfork? Life around these parts has been pretty quiet lately, only punctuated with a few moments of excitement. Top of the list is Evan's last day of high school ! He so distraught to be done with more than a decade of schooling around here that he cried hysterically and could only be consoled by a Coney Island chocolate milk shake. Tori and I were also so upset that we had to have milk shakes as well. Another recent highlight was Regan's second wedding shower last weekend. The median age was 65, so you know it was a blast. My great aunts, grandma and other assorted female relatives put on a great party at a semi-awkward Chine...

This past weekend I spent up north with my family participating in the 20th annual Zoo-De-Mack bike bash . On Saturday we rode the 51 mile course from Harbor Springs to Mackinac City . The red line at the top of the mitt traces our route (click the photo to enlarge). Although it was a bit cold and wet (mid 40's, I rode with my winter jacket on!), the ride was just as gorgeous as last year —incredible hills, tunnel of trees , bluffs overlooking Lake Michigan and sand dunes. My dad, sister, brother and I all rode mostly together in a spirited peloton , trying to catch one another. Our homemade " flair " this year was in motorcycle theme (notice the excitement over the rhinestone arm-bands). Not pictured are the leopard print and skull bandannas on the bikes. The bandannas actually came into use this year—as leg warmers and Kleenex. It was great to see Evan experience his first ZDM; although some of the hills were tough, he often passed me on them! I know he lo...

Ain't nothin' wrong with a quick connection to  The Sound of Music.  Lately I've been asked to share a couple links; a certain up and coming runner needed to know my trick to figuring out distance of workouts and after getting turned on to an awesome website for buying shoes, I figured I should share that too. This got me thinking about sites I visit often, thus I've created installment #1 of a few of my favorite things: 1. Map My Run This is a great site to calculate how far you run (or will run). Plug in an address, draw your route and the site figures your millage. I haven't explored this site as much as I should, but I know there are some other great features like finding races in your community and comparing your runs against others. Apparently there's some connection you can make with the program to iTunes or an iTouch, too. The same company makes Map My Ride , a similar site for biking. 2. Augusten Burroughs blog I have a slight addiction to ...

One of my favorite things to do when I'm home in the summer is to walk through Cranbrook . The buildings are so detailed and the grounds are absolutely gorgeous when all the flowers bloom. Evan, his friend Sam and I went exploring there today. We walked through the campus and through some of the gardens. The weather was perfect and the fountains were on; it was fantastic! Too many things were too pretty, and I have way too many photos to share, but here are a few of my favorites. From the left is of the fountain by the art museum, near the botanical garden and of us in front of a cherry blossom tree. Among our explorations we wandered across a mysterious shack in the woods. It was a tiny wooden building with a wall of windows.

I might not be writing, but someone is reading! My health and fitness blogs have been growing cobwebs for awhile; for the past few months, I've been contributing more to the sunken imprint in my couch than to the blogging world. Although I've been "on vacation", my email inbox continues to grow—with male enhancement spam and messages from unheard of royalty who promise they will wire me their sick relative's millions if I respond with my Social Security number. And sometimes I received cool emails like I did a few weeks ago. I was invited to participate in an America's Wellness Challenge webinar for this morning. I was pretty pleased to sit in my pajamas with a bowl of oatmeal while a dermatologist , registered dietitian and licensed naturopathic doctor presented about wellness. What I found the most interesting was Life Supplemented 's (webinar host company) wellness scorecard . The quick questionare ranked your overall wellness in four categories...

Yay, first post! I made this blog to keep in touch with all six people who are wondering what's going on with me. Within the next eight months I'll be jet-setting all over the Midwest; I hope to fill this blog with stories, photos and maybe videos of my travels. Right now I'm trying to " get my ducks in a row " for the start of my internship in Pennsylvania. I'm extremely excited for this new opportunity! I'll leave for the 11-week program at the beginning of June. Part of the Zoo-De-Mac ride last year through the Tunnel of Trees ! Between now and then I have a few other adventures. In two weeks my whole family will head up north for our second Zoo-De-Mac bike race. My brother, Evan will be joining us by bike this year, too. Check back for photos. I can't wait to see this blog grow with new experiences. I hope this serves as a successful way to share all my excitement with you.