Lara's elegant solutions

Lara was always very smart. From the moment I met her she was always perceptive, responsive, and challenging mentally. When I met Lara she was 14 and I was 18. That put us about equal in terms of poise and maturity, but I have no doubt that she was already smarter than I was. Many people have left posts than mention Lara's incredible intellect and her knack for innovative and elegant solutions to problems in her work, (forest fire research) and her hobby (mountain climbing). I don't know much about either of those things, but I remember that she always approached every problem in a smart, innovative way. In the early/mid 1980's when we were together we went to A LOT of concerts. Probably about 3 or 4 every month, on average. There were several good reasons for this: A) We had lots of free time and very little expenses, B) There were lots of bands touring then that we wanted to see, Tom Petty, ZZ Top, Aerosmith, Pat Methany, Moody Blues, Eric Clapton, Clash, Scorpions, Greatful Dead, Kinks, etc. and C) the average price for a ticket to a big headlining major act (like Tom Petty for example) was about $15 back then...so we saw EVERYTHING even halfway decent that came through town. Back in those great old glory days of concert-going there was a common thing called "Festival Seating". This basically meant that you bought a ticket to get in the building, and then it was up to you to get there early enough to grab a decent seat or duke it out on the open floor in front of the stage. Our present litigious society won't allow for this wonderful experience anymore and I feel for you young'uns that never got to partake of it. As previously stated Lara and I went to many many concerts and almost all of them were festival seating. It'll be no surprise to most of you that Lara wanted to be front and center at all of these concerts. For a while we either got to the show very early and staked our claim right in front of the stage, or we got there only a little early and duked it out with the crowd to muscle our way towards the front, which was always quite brutal. One day we were heading into the Coliseum (now Key Arena) a bit late for a show (Moody Blues, Nov. 20, 1983) and it was already packed on the floor. Lara wanted to be up front (as usual) but you couldn't just barge through people ahead of you that had established their "space" without ruffling some feathers. We were way back about 2/3 from the stage wondering what to do when suddenly Lara grabbed my hand and said "follow me". She then plunged into the crowd almost directly toward the side of the room. "Excuse me" she'd say with her oh-so-charming smile and cutie-pie face to the people she was cutting in front of whilst dragging me behind by the hand. Nobody minded because she was headed to the side and not forward to the stage. As soon as she got all the way to one side of the floor she'd turn around and head back accross, this time angling ever-so-slightly towards the stage. Back accross the crowded floor, 4 dozen smiling "excuse me's" and we're on the opposite side of the floor, but now 50 feet closer to the stage. We repeated this subtle zig-zag accross the crowd about 7 or 8 times until we were front and center without anyone realizing (until too late) that we were cutting in front of them. Brilliant! Simple. Elegant. She got what she wanted, without pissing anyone off, and it was easy. We repeated this blue-print at about 15 concerts afterwards and it never failed, we were front and center, two feet in front of the stage every time regardless of when we arrived. That first show in which we used Lara's new technique, the Moody Blues, had a little-known guitarist named "Stevie Ray Vaughan" opening, and thanks to Lara I was close enough to be able to touch his guitar pedals if I so desired... The girl was irrepressible, she was bold, savvy, charismatic, innovative, funny, smart, warm, energetic, and somehow blunt and diplomatic at the same time. She had style. And a lot of "moxie"... I just miss her so much, I don't think I'll ever get used to it. She visited me in a dream last night, maybe her way of saying goodbye. Goodbye Lara, thank you so much for everything...