Far away, far away
I wanna go far away
To a new life on a new shoreline
Where the water is blue
And the people are new
To another island
In another life…

-“Far Away” by Ingrid Michaelson

Sorry “Starlight,” I have a new favorite song.

I went back for my fourth year at Catalina Sea Camp on July 22.  I was lucky enough to get all the girls I requested as roommates in my cabin.  The eight of us were C2, and our counselor’s name is Kimmery.

But more on the anecdotal stuff later.

She played this song called “Far Away” on the first night to make us fall asleep.  I was only half-conscious and the only part of the song I caught was “lobsterman’s wife.”  So, much to my roommates’ dismay, I began calling it The Lobster Song.  Eventually they joined in; I was pleased.

Anyway, after listening to it a few times we started to realize how it sounded exactly the way we felt about Catalina and camp.

So we decided to sing it as a cabin for the end-of-session talent show, TNT.

Coincidentally, there are eight verses, one for each of us and we just thought that was perfect and fabulous.

We sang the first verse together.

I will live my life
As a lobsterman’s wife
On an island in the blue bay

Melissa:

He will take care of me
He will smell like the sea
And close to my heart he’ll always stay

Roxi:

I will bear three girls
All with strawberry curls
Little Ella and Nellie and Faye

Sonia:

While I’m combing their hair
I will catch his warm stare
On our island in the blue bay

Isabel:

There’s a boy next to me
And he never will be
Anything but a boy at the bar

Me:

And I think he’s the tops
He’s where everything stops
How I love to love him from afar

Brooke:

When he walks right past me
Then I finally see
On this bar stool I can’t stay

Ursula:

So I’m taking my frown
To a far distant town
On an island in the blue bay

Alex got the bridge:

I want to go far away.
Away away, I want to go far away, away, away
I want to go far away, far away

And we ended together:

Where the water is blue and the people are new.
To another life, to another life.
To another shore line
In another life

Catalina, our island in the blue bay, where everyone smells like the sea.  And a lot of times when we’re on the mainland, we want to go far away, back to our island.

Ursula, Roxi, Brooke, Melissa, Kimmery, Isabel, Sonia, me & Alex

I love you, ladies.

It really is a wonderful song.