Gas stations sell T-shirts quipping, “Katrina Gave Me a Blowjob I’ll Never Forget.” A 40-foot-by-80-foot banner on the side of a downtown hotel challenges passersby to “Laissez les Bons Temps Rouler Encore!” More than 10,000 college students have a week off from the universities they returned to in January. Will there be a Mardi Gras in New Orleans this year? Hell yes. Power lines, drywall, keepsakes, furniture, dishwashers, roofing tiles and more rest in scattered heaps on front lawns, sidewalks, streets and medians. Houses still testify the extent of the flood damage with dirty brown tide lines marking the water’s changing crests. Some college student residents have been living without power since returning in January, some are living on a university-sponsored cruise ship docked on the Mississippi. Others are packing two or three people into bedrooms designed for one. But the excitement is palpable. The freshmen that made brave decisions to stick with their pre-hurricane college choices have already witnessed the spirit of the city in its rebuilding efforts. Now those New Orleans newbies, along with the rest of the world, will watch as New Orleans reasserts its birthright: a killer Mardi Gras party. In New Orleans, Mardi Gras is a tradition living in the hearts of natives, in the hopes of tourists and, indeed, in the history of the region. Not even a category-four hurricane, record flooding and bureaucratic snafus can begin to dismantle the meaning of the holiday. The people of the city are aching for something normal, as most things normal have been missing in action for six months. Although most parades will take slightly shorter routes and feature fewer marching bands, it will take place. Mardi Gras 2006, just like every other year, represents the indomitable, fun-loving spirit of the Big Easy that is behind the giant hotel banners, all-night parties and, yes, even crudely humorous T-shirts.Denise Gass is a senior at Tulane University studying communication.