I am in my 3rd year of sailing a laser, previously I had a very old sunfish for a while. I can telly you I really enjoyed sailing both, but that I enjoy the Laser more. A couple of things to know before getting into a laser:
1) lasers will tip over (you'ver heard that before in this thread) They have a rounded hull shape and enough sail area so that it is easy to flip them and you will flip yours sailing it - especially going downwind.
2) lasers are a pretty athletic boat - in anything above 8kts you have to start hiking pretty hard to keep them level, and they really only sail well when they are sailed flat. In addition you have to pull the mainsheet in enough to bend the mast so the blocks a the back of the boom and traveler are touching. This isn't difficult, but holding it there and pulling it in in the puffs and releasing it slightly in the lulls will give you a workout.
3) the sunfish has a hard-chined hull and a relatively flat bottom so is much more stable than the laser - but I have capsized the sunfish plenty also.
4) the sunfish boom is much lower than the laser's so when you have it tied down for performance, so it makes tacking a jibing a little challenging.
5) the laser's rounded hull makes it easier than the sunfish to right once its been capsized.
6) the sunfish lateen sail means that it sails a little differently on port vs starboard tack and this was something the really good sunfish sailors can take advantage of -- definitely not me!!! I personally didn't like this little odditly of the sunfish
sounds like a few people up your way are willing to let you try a laser - so that's obviously the best idea, but don't get too down if you capsize a lot at first, you really do get the hang of it pretty fast (getting back in the boat after capsizing that is

)