Friday, February 19, 2010

Breathing a Collective Sigh of Relief

Our little oil prospecting company has been on the verge for many months now. We've generated a series of commercial size prospects and have been working for at least a year now to generate interest in funding the actual exploration efforts. The fun part is that basically our entire existence (at the moment) hinges on the success of this little effort. I say "little" lightly. It will be a mammoth operation and we'll have to increase the size of our company several-fold.

We've talked to several groups of investors over the last year and peddled our wares, so-to-speak, all over the country. It's driven us all to distraction and it's simply a miracle that we're not all suffering from perforated ulcers. One night not long ago I really did utter a prayer along the lines of "God, there has to be some random individual somewhere on the planet who finds these prospects as interesting as we do. Could you just scrounge that person up, please?" Then I rolled over in my cold sweat and tried to sleep.

Believe it or not, a random individual heard through the grapevine (the only time I've loved the grapevine) that we were shopping and called us. Turns out he and my grandfather are familiar with one another via their work in the 50's and 60's with Phillips Petroleum and other ventures. Furious storms of emails and negotiations have been going on via email and my iPhone has been smoking hot on occasion. I've been moving from outlet to outlet all over the greater Houston area unable to even keep it charged.

Today, though, we got the email..."Send us the final confidentiality agreement with these changes and we're ready to get started."

DEAFENING SILENCE FALLS ON HOUSEHOLD FOR A PROLONGED PERIOD OF TIME. FAMILY MEMBERS STARE IN UNBELIEF. WE ARE STUNNED.

Then, there was screaming and jumping up and down.

There was some dancing around in the living room by the dyed-in-the-wool Southern Baptists. I think I lost ten pounds immediately. Then I realized my workload quadrupled. Who cares??!!! Now we're actually working for "real" money. (For those of you who don't know, "real" money is "other people's" money).

Real money...the green kind...well, it used to be green...
Scat

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