I’ve never been too big on birthdays, but being overseas permanently and away from so many of my friends and family has made them a little more sentimental for me I guess.

But there’s no two ways about it, really: I’m going to be turning 30 on American soil.

Unless I hit the lottery or end up in a job offering six weeks’ paid vacation in my first year (the lottery is a better chance), I’m just not going to have the cash or the opportunity in 2015 to get back to Australia to visit.

And while I wouldn’t expect all of my favorite people who don’t live in the same state as me to come to me, I’ve decided on a way that I can celebrate with all of you. Or some of you.

A couple of my American friends have turned 30 over the past year or so, and they’ve challenged themselves to tick off 30 things in their 30th year. The one that sticks in my mind is “30 days of skiing before I turn 30.”

I sure as hell won’t be doing that – or one day of skiing, honestly – but I’ve been mulling over the 30-for-30 thing for a couple of weeks. Initially I was thinking it’d be fun to try and have a beer and a shot in 30 different U.S. states.

That seemed good on paper, until I realized that once I’d exhausted the six New England states, I’d literally have to drive for hours, or fly, to 24 other states in the course of the year to achieve that. And on top of that, it’d probably require border road trips from whatever city I flew to, so I could kill multiple birds with one stone. That sounds like an awful lot of work, to be honest.

Thirty brewery visits would be a lot more achievable, but again I’d exhaust a bunch of them in Maine and then have to travel interstate, which adds up cost-wise and, even more importantly, doesn’t involve as many of my friends as I’d like.

So here’s what I came up with: What I want to do before I turn 30 is have a beer on Skype/FaceTime with 30 different friends from around the world. It’s like a party broken into 30 different pieces, where I can spend an hour or whatever catching up with what’s going on in your life, have a beer and just plain bullshit.

Obviously time differences will be a hurdle, but I think we can get it done. I have no qualms about having a beer in the wee hours of the morning (obviously – you know this), and I live alone so it’s not like I’ll be disturbing the roommates.

I’m going to have to do this at a pretty good clip – around one every 10 or 11 days – to hang out with 30 of you, but I think it’ll be a good challenge.

So who’s with me?

(Sorry to my many readers who found this blog on their search for green card info. You don’t have to Skype with me. That’d be downright upsetting for you.)