I'm having troubles...

....I'm having a bit of an issue here and I'm not quite sure what to do about it. No, it's nothing serious, but it's been bothering me a bit. Everyone knows I love to take pictures. A lot of pictures. That's an understatement. My dilemma? First off, I don't know as much as I know I should about my camera. It's my goal to learn and understand this camera more. As much as I use it, I should know it inside and out. Because I don't know it all that well, I take a gazillion shots all to try to get those occasional perfect shots that take your breath away. Even though I'm capturing the moments, I feel like the camera is keeping me distanced from the moments. It's kinda hard to explain. It's like a catch-22. I know that if I'm not taking all of these pictures, I'm not capturing the moments, but while I'm taking all of these pictures I'm actually "missing" a lot of these moments. I'm actually afraid to put the camera down because I don't want to miss something. I really need to figure this out and find a balance. But how?