This was the advice given to me by my balik-bayan uncle this morning over breakfast. Having just retired from his long service in the US Navy, he's passing onto me words of wisdom on how to enjoy life: Don't wait to get old before you do something. Don't wait until you retire, until you are out of the fastlane. While you're young, do something. Do something before you get old.

I felt like Tuesdays with Morrie.

He asked me what I do to get out. Ummm. I don't really do anything. I shop. He's like, what do you do on weekends? I sleep late (trying to make up for the deprivation of rest), go on the Internet then go out shopping. His reaction: Oh my God, Iha. He said that I should get a hobby. Learn how to scuba dive (I can't swim). Play golf (Don't like golf). You need something or else you're going to burn out easy. My thought balloon: Ummm, I do gym now. And more importantly- Am I really getting all this, this early in the morning before I get to work?

Well, I took it all in, said goodbye and ran off to work. My boyfriend then turned to me and said, "Yeah hunny you should get a hobby." Hello, I do have hobbies. Well, hobbies that I don't really do anymore. These things that I jot down on application forms and teeny-bopper autograph notebooks (next to What is Love?)... painting, reading, writing poetry and short stories, shopping, watching TV... the artful things I used to not be able to live without. Now I'm down to shopping and TV. How procreative.

Okay. Now this got me into a whole realm of self-examination. So, does this mean that I'm not having fun? Am I really missing out on so much? Am I really not living this life to the fullest? And the burning question, what do I do?

I turned to my boyfriend and said, "Let's go to the beach." He said okay, smiled and added, "Let's snorkel." The not knowing how to swim bit lurked in my head. A milli-second debate was going on - but there's a lifevest... but I'm paranoid... but Chips is there - in the end, I gave out a much hesisated "oh-kay."

In the end, I'd really want to do something. That something still undetermined.