If there's one recurring theme in my life, and the lives of people close to me in the last year, it's that you have to wake up and see the fucking moment in front of you.

So much can change in a year. A year ago I was coaching high school volleyball, loving it mostly. It really defined me since there was little else in my life. I was about to have a life-changing event in just a few days. There were things in front of my face I didn't even know there, and it would make for an interesting turning point.

For me and Catherine, it's a weird time because we've been dating a few months, and now she's in vet school, almost two hours away. That situation makes you think a lot about life, and what's important to you. We stay together because the rare but must-haves are present (honesty, disclosure and no games), but at the same time resolve to live in the moment and take in what is going on around us. For her that means fulfilling a dream and absorbing knowledge, for me it means seeing through on life's "to do" list. When you aren't wasting time on feeling sorry for yourself or trying to manipulate people and the world around you to fit your ideal, the moment stares you right in the place and invites you to take it.

A friend of mine IM'd me tonight and asked why I though a friend of hers wasn't trying to make more of his life. To that I replied, "Everyone has a journey. some people choose to take it, others sit around in a fog and figure what they can't see won't bother them."

It takes a lot of courage to get out of the fog. Join me in tooting that fog horn. I busted out about a year ago, but I might need help being reminded to get out again.